The Past
by MayContainRandomness
Summary: It's Haruhi's second year at Ouran and everything seems normal until on old 'friend' awakens some unpleasant memories. Haruhi x Mori with other pairing moments
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!!! Apart from Hokari Imutzu and I hate him -_- he not nice.**

**Summary: It's Haruhi's second year at Ouran. Everything seems normal, by host club standards anyway. Her ordinary life is shattered by an old 'friend' who awakens some unpleasant memories. Haruhi x You decide! (Review to leave your opinion, based on the story please. Not personal preference)**

_First day of the new school year, nothing seems to have changed, mom, _Haruhi spoke to her deceased mother and sighed. Hikaru and Kaoru leant on her shoulders and Hikaru poked at her cheek trying to get her attention.

'Haruhiiiii,' he whined, 'why are you ignoring uuuuus,' Kaoru fake pouted and nodded to join in.

Haruhi sighed again, sometimes _I miss my quiet life before the host club, _she thought and turned to Hikaru.'

'What do you want?' she frowned slightly and looked up at Hikaru questioningly even though she knew full well he just wanted to annoy her. The twins grinned evilly as Kaoru joined his brother. Haruhi didn't notice their grin, she was too busy looking over his shoulder at a boy of medium height with dark, almost black medium length hair and narrowed hazel eyes. He started to smile at her,

'If I'm late Kyouya will make me pay, I don't want another debt,' she gabbled hurriedly then turned quickly on her heels and ran down the vast marble halls calling a rushed goodbye to the twins as she went. The twins exchanged glances and Hikaru raised an eyebrow. They turned around to see what Haruhi had been looking at. The boy was still standing there in the middle of the hall, smiling eerily to himself.

'Maybe Haruhi has a crush on him,' Kaoru joked. Hikaru stiffened.

'Don't be stupid,' he growled and turned away, walking in the direction Haruhi had fled to.

'Oh come on, when it comes to looks he's definitely host club standard,' Kaoru knew he was seriously pissing his brother off but he couldn't help it.

'Whatever, we're gonna be late,' Hikaru mumbled and kept walking. Kaoru sniffed but remained silent. The boy walked a few metres behind them.

~.~.~.~

'My daughter has returned! I missed you so much!' Tamaki squealed and glomped Haruhi, who was definitely used to it.

'You saw me this morning before class and at lunch,' Haruhi pointed out.

'Yeah, but,' Tamaki tried to think of a response, 'it's been two hours still,' he answered meekly.

'Here's our favourite toy,'

'Haru-chan! D'you wanna hold Usa-chan for me,'

'Ah,'

'Don't hug my daughter you hooligans!'

A vein popped on Haruhi's head, or it would have if she had been concentrating but she was thinking about something and the expression on her face flashed between worry and fear.

'If you don't get into positions then we won't be ready for the customers,' Kyouya commented, already standing in position scribbling in his notebook. He glanced up for a moment and smiled, sending shivers down the rest of the hosts' spines. The hurried into their positions just as the door opened, but it was no customer.

'It's that guy from earlier,' whispered Kaoru.

'But what's he doing here?' Hikaru wasn't too pleased by the boy he thought Haruhi had a crush on appearing for the second time that day.

'Ah, Imutzu Hokari, class 3C, son of the manager of Imutuzu publishing compaines. What do you need?' Kyouya smiled his fake smile and his glasses flashed ominously.

Hokari completely ignored him and walked right up to Haruhi, bending down so his face was level with hers. Haruhi leant back as far as she could without being too obvious.

'I thought it was you,' Hokari grinned, 'what are you doing in a guy's uniform? You look hotter in girl stuff.'

'Eh?!' Tamaki shrieked although, as usual, nobody listened.

'I-Imutzu-san, what do you want with me, haven't you already had enough of me?'

'Nah, are you still sour about that time?' he cocked his head to one side grinning at Haruhi's discomfort, 'what's with the formalities. I told you before to call me by my first name.'

Haruhi scowled.

'Anyway, I only came to say hi,' just before he turned round he whispered in Haruhi's ear and she just stopped herself from letting out a terrified shriek. Kyouya, with his bat-like hearing, hid his shocked eyes behind his glasses. Mori side glanced at the small brunette's expression as she was bombarded with questions she ignored from Huni, the twins and Tamaki. He had never seen her afraid of anything although he had hear she was scared of thunder and lightning. Where was the storm that had shaken her so badly? Was it that boy? Was he The Storm? He decided if it was important he would find out soon enough.

'C-can I go make a call?' Haruhi stuttered to Kyouya and to her surprise he nodded.

'So long as you are back in time for you customers,' he stated dryly then went back to scribbling furiously on a fresh page of his notebook.

Haruhi staggered away from the four noisy boys who were still throwing questions at her and went into the dressing room. Once she had closed the door she sank to the floor, the composure she had been fighting to keep flew away and as the first tear trickled down her face she fumbled in her pocket on pulled out her phone, a gift from the twins. She knew the number by heart and punched them into the keys, her shaking fingers meant that she had to stop a few times and start again but eventually the number dialled.

She held the small device to her ear and tried to breathe normally as she waited for someone to pick up; it felt like minutes rather than seconds until she heard a click,

'Hello? Fujioka? What's happened?'

'A-Arai,' she whimpered, 'He, he came b-back,'

~.~.~.~

It had been a while since Haruhi had left to make her call but Kyouya pretended not to notice, he could let it drop this once. He had a few customers himself but he ignored them and watched Haruhi's customers sit chatting and worrying about Haruhi. Kyouya thought back to what Imutzu Hokari had said to Haruhi, what only he had heard,

'_I know you like it as much as I did,'_

Hokari had said, Kyouya thought he knew what the boy was talking about and Haruhi's pained eyes almost confirmed his suspicion. He would wait silently and see what happened; he would only do anything himself when he felt it was absolutely necessary.

He realised, after a few minutes that Haruhi had returned and was smiling and reassuring her customers that she was fine.

_That smile looks fake, _thought Kyouya and smiled slightly to himself at his hypocritical thinking. Then he turned back to his customers.

**Ok, here is the first chapter. I'm not too sure how long it will be until the next one is up, it depends on whether my mum confiscates my laptop or not *hides laptop*. Reviews would be appreciated although I don't need to be told if the grammar is bad. I will check through the chapter again when I have some free time ^^.**

**Note: the reason Huni and Mori are still there is because there is a University connected to the high school building *nods to make you agree* well... it never said there wasn't a unversity in the anime and manga plus there is elementary and middle school so it wouldn't be too weird.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer- OK, for all future chapters, I do NOT own Ouran and the only character I own so far is Hokari Imutzu (I dunno if there will be more)**

Haruhi had managed to keep up the charade that everything was normal for nearly a week. It had been Monday, the first day of school, when she had called Arai. Now it was Friday and still he had not turned up**.**

_I'll be there as soon as I can. Hold tight till I get there and stay away from him._

Those had been his exact words and she followed them as well as she could. She had only passed Hokari a few times in the hall and every time she had slipped quietly into an empty classroom or made an excuse until he left. She was also holding tightly as she could to her self control and sanity. A hard job. None of the Host Club members had asked any questions so she guessed she had fooled them into thinking everything was fine.

'I guess he's forgotten to come,' she murmured to herself.

'Who's 'he'?' Kaoru leaned close and raised an eyebrow.

'It's not that Hokari boy is it? You still haven't told us how you know him,' Hikaru leant backwards on his chair with hid back to her. Kaoru noticed as Haruhi's eyes widened, if that was physically possible for her huge brown eyes, she blinked and the expression of fear vanished.

'I hate that bastard and it's none of your business how I know 'it',' she finished, frowning. Kaoru watched the scene in silence. He knew something was bugging her about this Hokari guy appearing but if it was anything serious he assumed Haruhi would tell them. She had always been open about what she thought.

_Damn, I was trying to forget about that guy_ she thought.

'If you are planning on talking through my lesson and using that foul language I guess you would rather sit outside for the rest of the lesson,' their teacher stood in front of Haruhi's desk. Luckily she didn't look too angry as she had a soft spot for Haruhi and the twins.

'Sorry, sensei,' they mumbled and resumed scribbling on the question sheets they had been given. Haruhi had finished so just stared into space looking a little lost in Kaoru's opinion.

_What if Arai doesn't come? What if 'it' tries to do 'that' again? Damn, I wish I'd never met him in middle school. He always thought he was so smart. Using his money to get whatever he wanted. Stupid bastard. Arai, please come. I don't know how much longer I can pretend 'it' isn't here. Why did he come to Ouran anyway? On second thought, I don't want to know or get involved. _

~.~.~.~

'Are you ok Haruhi-san, you're looking a bit tired,' one girl blinked worriedly at Haruhi form over the rim of the expensive pink tea cup she clasped in her hands.

'I've just been studying late, if I had to leave to school because of bad grades I wouldn't be able to see you ladies anymore,' she flashed a brilliant smile.

'KYAAAA!' all of her customers squealed, as well as the girls passing by. The girl who asked her nearly fainted and her face looked like it had just been splashed with a bucket of red paint she was blushing so hard.

_Man, this is getting hard. I would rather leave this school right now, if it meant I could get away from 'it'. _

Still, no matter what she thought she managed to keep up her usual host act but as the time seeped away, so did her hope. The fact that Arai was going to come and make everything better was the only way she had made it through the week without becoming an emotional wreck.

'Ok ladies. I hope you have a lovely weekend and we will be anxiously awaiting your return,' Kyouya called. Signalling to the door Mori and Huni were holding open.

'Farewell my sweet princesses, two days seems too long for us to be parted,' Tamaki used the same line every week and Haruhi couldn't understand how every female student could still fall for it.

'Be strong Prince Tamaki!' so of them cried to the Host King whose eyes were filled with fake sorrow, 'We shall miss you too!'

The twins waved the last customers out of the door and shoved the huge door closed with a sigh, only to be knocked over to the floor as the doors flung open. A boy with short, spiky brown hair and a plain blue t-shit, white combat trousers and dirty trainers ran it.

'I thought it would be best if I waited for the girls to leave, are you ok Har-OOoof,' Haruhi rushed into him and clutched his waist.

'A-Arai, make him go away, make him go away,' she had her eyes squeezed shut and the tears she had blocked for five days gushed out in a torment, 'why did he come back?' the rest of the words were a messy garble as her sobbing form into hysterics.

'Hey, Haruhi, calm down. What's all the fuss about and where did Arai come from?' Hikaru stepped forward to pull Haruhi away.

'Hikaru, I think you should leave her alone,' Kaoru put a hand on his brother's shoulder. Arai obviously knew what was going on so had a better chance of helping Haruhi.

'What's wrong with Haru-chan?' Huni asked his cousin.

'...' Mori stayed silent and the cogs in his brain strained to turn fast enough for him to make sense of the situation.

'My daughter, you can tell me what is wrong can't you,' Tamaki was panicking at seeing Haruhi in tears.

'Tamaki-,' Kyouya started but was interrupted by Arai who had previously been trying to console Haruhi but failing.

'Will you all shut the hell up a let me deal with this damn it,' he frowned and then steered Haruhi out of the room. The hosts stood in silence as they heard Arai whispering to Haruhi and mumbled replies in return. Eventually Arai opened the door again, without Haruhi.

'What have you done with my-'

'I sent her to the bathroom to get cleaned up, if you shut up for a sec I can tell you what's going on. I'm tired cause I've been travelling for so long so just listen,' Arai was not like what they remembered for the summer break in Karuizawa but they all knew what lack of sleep could do to people, they had experience from Kyouya and Huni.

'This is something to do with Hokari Imutzu I presume,' Kyouya stated and pushed his glasses making them glint in the diminishing spring light. They had moved to the numerous sofas dotted around the vast music room.

'It must be important for you to come all the way here,' Huni frowned seriously.

'Yeah, and I'm afraid what I have to tell you is not pretty...'

**OK, I don't think I'll be able to update for at least a week because I' m going walking on Sunday and I have to get walking equipment on Saturday (it's Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Awards practice if you've heard of it) Hope you enjoyed it although I feel I ended up writing a load of rubbish. Never mind. I'll update ASAP ^^ Have a good weekend**


	3. Chapter 3

**YES! I can sit at home all day and do nothing because my walking thing I was meant to be doing got cancelled cos of flooding. I'm so happy ^^**

The hosts sat patiently as Arai sat silent for a few moments, as if to gather the courage and willpower to tell them what exactly Hokari Imutzu had to do with Haruhi and why she was getting so worked up about it. The level-headed brunette had been broken down to hysterics at just seeing the boy, a surprising sight.

'Well, I guess I should start with how Haruhi knows him,' he spoke the last word with disgust in his voice, Arai's eyes turned hateful as he thought about the newcomer to Ouran, 'Hokari Imutzu joined our middle school about half way through our first year, he was in the year above. Everyone thought it was a bit weird he didn't join at the beginning of the year and it turned out he had cause some 'trouble' at the private school he used to go to and as a punishment his father sent him to a 'commoner school' to learn his lesson, that's all the teacher would tell us,' Arai shrugged, as if in apology.

'That doesn't tell us exactly how he knows Haruhi personally though,' Kaoru frowned.

'I'm getting to that bit, shut up,' Kaoru shut up, 'when he first came everyone tried to stay away from him, none of us knew exactly what 'trouble' he had caused. What was weirder is he would pick a different girl every day and just follow them around; he wouldn't approach them, just watch from the shadows. One day he started following Haruhi, she'd heard about his weird habit of following girls so just ignored him but this Imutzu guy kept following her, he didn't move on like he had before, I think Haruhi was a bit freaked out but didn't bother anyone with her concerns.'

'Haruhi is scared now because she thinks he's going to start following her again?' Tamaki tilted his head to one side, not understanding what was so scaring if he'd done it before.

'It wasn't the following that scared her most though. Haruhi stayed behind after school a lot to catch up on studies. Her father had friends around a lot so I guess it wasn't very quiet at home. She was doing homework in the classroom and Hokari sat in the classroom too, he had done this all week so Haruhi was used to it but then he stood up and went over to her and-' Arai stopped he was finding it hard to say the next bit, he stared down at his hands and plucked at the purple fabric of the sofa he was sitting on.

'Ari-chan?' Huni blinked worriedly, also trying to encourage and reassured him.

'I'm not too sure exactly what happened because I wasn't there at the time but I think he asked Haruhi out and Haruhi rejected him. He told Haruhi that if she wasn't going to be his girlfriend then he was going to make the most of it then he... Haruhi struggled but he was too strong and... I didn't get there in time... he'd already... he'd took advantage of her and abused her... he defiled her,'

'You mean he...' Hikaru stared at Arai, wide eyed; he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Arai nodded and put his head in his hands, 'I wasn't there in time to stop it,' his moaned through his hands, the though obviously pained him and he blamed himself for Haruhi getting hurt.

'How do you know all of this?' Kyouya whispered, even he was shaken by what he was being told.

'Because,' Arai lifted his head with a haunted look in his eyes, 'because I'm the one who found her. I was delivering vegetables to the school kitchen for my uncle and I saw him leave the classroom. I waited until he left, Haruhi was on the floor, she wouldn't let me touch her, and she wouldn't let me call the police. I covered her with my jacket and waited until she calmed down.' Arai's voice started to crack.

'The police don't know?' Mori finally spoke.

'N-no, only me, Haruhi a-and _him_, not even her dad knows,' Arai placed his head back in his hands.

'Haruhi,' Tamaki whispered. Thinking about the girl who seemed to live so normally, she'd been living in this torment for so long and told nobody. Nothing had been done to catch the boy who had wronged her so terribly.

'Poor Haru-chan,' Huni had started to cry and buried his face into Mori's blazer.

They sat in silence then a scream pierced the silence, Arai jumped out of his seat and ran.

'Haruhi!' he dashed through the door in the direction for the scream, the rest of the boys followed. As he ran a smaller figure rammed into him and clung to him in torment. His shirt started to go damp with tears.

'Haruhi, what's wrong?' The twins crouched down beside her and touched her shoulders gently.

'Come back girly, I only wanted to play!' Hokari came running down the corridor. Mori and Huni positioned themselves in front of Arai and the hysterical Haruhi.

'He-he was waiting f-for me outside the b-bathroom,' she choked. Aria cradled her like a child and stepped as far away from Hokari who had now stopped in front of Huni and Mori, scowling.

'Don't you come near Haru-chan,' Huni muttered darkly.

'Why? What is she to you?' the dark haired boy snarled, 'She's not your girlfriend so let me do what I want,' he stepped forward. Mori grabbed his shoulder to hold him back. Hokari winced at the tightness of the tall man's grasp.

'Haruhi Fujioka is not your toy, no girl is, if you come near her again you are going to regret it severely,' Mori stared down menacingly at the boy who had cause Haruhi all of her troubles.

'Aw, come on. You enjoyed it didn't you Fujioka?' Hokari peered around Mori to the shaking bundle in Arai's arms. Haruhi whimpered and shook harder, 'wimp,' sniffed Hokari and turned to leave, his hands in his pockets. He felt a tap on his shoulder, he frowned at turned around.

'What do you-,' he was silenced when Mori punched him square in the jaw sending him flying back into a wall.

'Leave. Haruhi. Alone,' Mori stepped forward threatening another punch, Huni followed.

'Bastards!' Hokari screeched clutching his blemished face and spitting out a tooth, 'I'll sue you for this, you're lucky you didn't break my damn jaw.'

'Oh I don't think you'll want to do that. When the police find out why Mori punched you, it'll be you behind bars,' Kyouya joined in the fight and smirked when the look of realisation dawned on Imutzu's face.

'Fine!' he threw his hands in the air in defeat then ran down the hallway in the direction of the school gates, 'fucking bastards will pay for this,' he muttered.

'I-is he gone?' Tamaki whispered.

'Obviously,' Hikaru replied, attempting a shaky laugh but it came out as more of a strangled cry. Kaoru clutched his brother's hand.

_If this is how scared we are, how is Haruhi feeling?_ He thought and cast a glance at the defenceless looking girl leaning on Arai.

'Takashi, are you ok?' Huni peered up at his shaking cousin.

'Yeah,' it was a lie, he was furious. He turned quickly to check on Haruhi, she had her eyes closed and her breathing was slow, 'asleep?' Mori asked, surprised.

'No, I think she fainted,' Arai answered.

'I'm going to sort out the CCTV so the school doesn't know what happened,' Kyouya said, surveying the people in front of him and taking in their expressions. Their told him exactly the same thing as he was thinking.

_This boy. What did he do to Haruhi? Did he really... did he really rape her? She never said anything..._

'I'll come with you, I'm sure Haruhi doesn't want anyone to know about this,' Arai spoke up suddenly and handed the unconscious Haruhi to an unsuspecting Mori, 'will you look after her and take her home. I don't really know where she lives anymore. She moved after middle school,' he directed the question at the silent man now carrying Haruhi bridal style, the only difference this time was the 'bride' was limp and pale.

Mori nodded in understanding and Huni followed him.

'My daughter,' Tamaki wailed quietly and started to follow.

'Mori-senpai is looking after her, I advise you three should go home and tell no-one about the event of tonight until further notice,' Kyouya looked at Hikaru, Kaoru and his best friend, taking in the Host King's look of distress. Arai nodded in agreement then followed Kyouya to the music room to collect the Shadow King's laptop so he could hack the CCTV system.

**Phew, this took me ages to write, I'm not sure why but now I have to update my OTHER fanfic. This is more exhausting then doing a three hour walk... hope you enjoyed it though ^^ I'm updating faster than I thought I would but believe me, it probably won't keep up.**


	4. Chapter 4

**OK. I am trying to think of some smart ass comment to put her but I can't think of any. Enjoy the latest chapter of 'The Past' even if it isn't a very nice story.**

'Oh my, what has happened to my dearest daughter? I bet that insect did something to her,' when Huni rang on the bell of Haruhi's apartment, Ranka-san freaked out at the sight of his ghostly pale daughter dangling in Mori's arms. Even if Haruhi had been out cold for over half an hour her father's hysterical wailing was enough to wake her up. She blinked and frowned trying to remember where she was and what was happening. She froze for a moment when she remembered Hokari but once she got her bearings she realised she was outside her house... being carried?

'She skipped lunch to catch up on work then fainted from exhaustion and dehydration,' Haruhi looked up to see who was speaking to see Mori's expressionless face. She was slightly surprised to see Mori speaking more than one syllable words but when he looked down at her, faintly surprised to see her awake and staring at him with eyes that looked even bigger in her pale and gaunt face, she smile as well as she could to show her appreciation of his lie.

'Thanks for bringing me home you guys, sorry for causing so much trouble,' she clambered out of Mori's arms although it took her an extra second to release the grip of his shirt, as if it was reassurance that she was safe. When her feet touched the ground she wobbled a bit and Huni reached out to steady her. Ranka took her hand and pulled her into the house. Before he closed the door he also smiled gratefully.

'Thank you boys,'

Huni smiled and waved but once the door had closed his mouth contorted into a mixture between a frown and a pout, 'Takashi, what can we do to help Haru-chan?'

Mori sighed and shook his head. If Haruhi didn't want them to go to the police, which he found absurd then the only thing he could do was protect her from that boy, even that was difficult considering he was in a different year to Haruhi, at least Imutzu Hokari was too.

'I still can't believe Haru-chan didn't tell us anything,' Huni was more talking to himself rather than his companion as he clambered into the limo that would take them home. Although Huni couldn't believe it, Mori could, Haruhi seemed the type of person who would rather not bother people with her problems or dwell on the past. It was unfortunate the past had decided to follow her all the way to Ouran.

~.~.~.~

Haruhi dragged herself out of bed the next Monday but it wasn't because she had any difficulty waking up. She hadn't gone to sleep in the first place. She was dreading going to school but reasoned she would probably be safer there surrounded by friends than at home, alone.

'Aren't you having any breakfast honey?' Ranka watched his daughter open the front door and grab her school bag. Haruhi didn't even turn around; she just shook her head then tugged the door closed behind her. She didn't want her father seeing the deep purple bags under her eyes.

Haruhi knew the way to school like the back of her hand so she let her body and mind relax a bit and she trudged through the puddles slowly towards the large pink building she went to school at. It wasn't until a particularly large raindrop landed on her head then trickled in between her eyes and down her face did she look up and notice the vast expanse of grey clouds releasing rain onto the damp city. She whimpered once in defeat.

_What luck I have, could my life possibly get worse. I'll be soaked by the time I get to school._

She couldn't bring her body to run the rest of the way so she walked slowly with her shoulders slumped in surrender. A limo slowed down beside her then came to a standstill a few metres ahead. Haruhi jumped when a head peered out of the window right in front of her using a text book to stop them from getting wet.

'Jeez Haruhi, you're mad walking to school in this weather. Get in,' before she had a chance to object Hikaru pulled her into the car. Haruhi forgot everything and sank back into the soft leather seats. The tense muscles she didn't know she had been holding from her nightmares nearly relaxed until she closed her eyes and saw Hokari's face smiling at her. Her eyes snapped back open and she sat up straight her muscles tensed again.

'Are you ok?' Kaoru touched her shoulder gently and peered at her sleep deprived eyes. Haruhi's muscles tensed harder with the contact, remembering the memories that had passed through her head the night before. Kaoru felt it so removed his arm.

'I'm fine,' Hikaru gave her a look that said _Ha! That's a lie. _Haruhi scowled, 'fine, I couldn't sleep last night. I was... thinking about stuff,' the reminder made her breath quicken slightly with panic and she glanced around jumpily.

'Oh,' Hikaru shifted around uncomfortably. Not really knowing what he should do or say next.

'You don't have to be worried right now, just relax. He can't get you here can he?' Kaoru beat his brother too it. Haruhi seemed to consider what he was saying then nodded and fell back onto the plush fabric of the seat behind her with a sigh.

'Thanks,' she murmured and her panicked breathing slowed. Soon she had fallen asleep, the twins noticed this when Haruhi slumped into Kaoru's lap. Kaoru almost shoved her off in surprise when he saw her contented smile then he relaxed and put an arm over her shoulder then watched the scenery pass by through the tinted window. He missed Hikaru's glower of jealously.

~.~.~.~

_I'm walking down a hallway. Wait? This isn't Ouran. It's my old middle school! I'm wearing the first year's uniform. Considering the weather outside it looks like autumn. Doesn't that mean 'he' should be here? I turn around but there is no hazel eyed boy following me. I sigh in relief and continue walking down the hall._

'_Bye Haruhi-chan!' a girl calls to me and waves. I recognise her as my friend before 'that' happened, Kimisomethingorother. I wave to her and continue walking; I turn into an empty classroom, my old homeroom class and sit down to do some work, Biology. I panic, it's the same as I was doing 'that' night but when I glance around there is still no Hokari leaning back in a chair looking lazily at me. _

_I start to fill in the spaces on the sheet before me. It starts to get dark outside and the rain falls heavier, there's even a quiet rumble of thunder. My body doesn't freeze up like I think it will, maybe this means he really isn't coming, maybe it means God has given me another chance! I smile at the thought._

_I have finished Biology and have moved onto Business Studies. I flex my fingers then scribble the next answer. I'm getting hungry and dad will want his food soon too. _

_A flash of lightning makes my head shoot up in surprise, I scream and Hokari's hands reach towards me. All I can see is that horrible grin then pain swallows me._

**Thanks for all of the reviews guys! This chapter was going to be longer but I decided to be annoying and split it up into two chapters ^^ It will probably be finished by tomorrow though if I am not writing another chapter for 'One Mistake of Love'. Reviews will keep me working at this pace ^^ (almost the speed of light)**


	5. Chapter 5

A flash of lightning illuminated the vast music room, Haruhi shrieked and leapt out of the curled up position she held in Kaoru's lap.

'Shit Haruhi! Don't scare me like that,' Kaoru stayed where he was blinking bewilderedly at Haruhi. The small brunette, instead of apologising, crouched in the corner of the room with her hands over her head protectively. She was shaking violently.

'I didn't know you were this scared of thunderstorms,' Kaoru stood up, trying to work out what to do.

'Stop it, stop it, stop it,' she whimpered, 'it hurts, it hurts.'

'Hey Haruhi, its ok,' Kaoru stepped forward, Haruhi turned around screaming, her eyes were closed tight and she swing her fist wildly. Kaoru just managed to dodge it. Haruhi stood breathing deeply and unevenly then opened her eyes and looked around bewilderedly.

'Why am I in the Host Club?' she frowned and looked around, 'what are you doing in the Host club?'

_She doesn't remember what just happened? She must have been asleep still. At least the teacher forced Hikaru to stay in lessons, he would've freaked if she'd hit me._

'You were asleep so the teacher let you skip class; she said I could look after-,' Kaoru was cut off. A deep rumble reverberated around the walls then lightning filled the room with a blinding light, the storm was at its peak. Haruhi resumed her position on the floor with her head in her hands.

'Is he here,' she whispered.

'Who?' Kaoru tilted his head in confusion.

'_Him_,' Haruhi insisted, 'whenever,' a crash of thunder stopped her, 'whenever there's a storm, _he _is here, just like that night.'

'That's why you're scared of thunder, because of the Imutzu guy?' Haruhi flinched and nodded, mentioning his name was a big mistake. Kaoru bent down and put an arm around her shaking shoulders. He would sit with her, waiting until the inevitable moment when Tamaki would burst through the doors wailing for his daughter.

~.~.~.~

Haruhi managed to fall asleep again once the storm started to fade, leaving only the light pattering of rain on the window as a reminder of its presence. Hikaru joined his double soon after his first lesson was over.

'Can I stay with Haruhi now,' he whined, 'you already got to miss geometry,' he wrinkled his nose at the name of his most hated subject.

'Don't you think there are matters more serious than skipping lesson,' Kyouya materialised behind Hikaru causing him to jump three feet into the air.

'Exactly! Like how my poor daughter had been allowed to stay with one of the doppelgangers for an entire hour, what is the world coming to!' Tamaki wailed ready, to pluck Haruhi from Kaoru's side. A firm hand on his shoulder stopped him, he still scrabbled frantically for his 'daughter' though.

'Let her sleep,' Mori's deep voice rumbled.

'That wasn't exactly what I was talking about, Tamaki. I meant we need to convince Haruhi to go to the police, or do it ourselves,' Kyouya sighed at Tamaki's stupidity.

'But, there isn't any evidence is there?' Huni frowned and pouted, 'how could we convince the police without any evidence?'

'Don't we all have to go to class? I'm not missing another one and we're already late,' the Host Club members turned around to see Haruhi standing up and brushing creases out of her uniform, 'and Huni's right, there is no evidence so we are not going to the police,' with a final warning glance she walked out of the room towards her next lesson.

'She does realise she left her bag behind doesn't she?' Hikaru whispered to his brother.

'I don't think so...' the other Hitachiin frowned then grabbed Haruhi's school bag and followed her to their next lesson. Hikaru followed yelling that he'd race him to the classroom.

'We're going to find some evidence, aren't we' Tamaki directed the question at his best friend and polar opposite.

Kyouya smirked and adjusted his glasses, 'of course, I'm sure I can find something.'

~.~.~.~

Kyouya had decided that Haruhi being raped and having no evidence to go to the police with was more important than the host club so he put a sign up saying the Host Club was closed for the day, disappointing the many rich ladies that made up their customers, rich ladies that seriously needed to get a life.

Arai had also come from the relatives' apartment he was staying at to check on Haruhi again. He had told his family a friend of his was critically ill so he needed to stay with them. A lie they had swallowed whole.

'You ok?' he was still worried about Haruhi and he looked her up and down, taking in her tired eyes, or tired everything, she had gotten almost two hours of sleep from when she skipped class but she was still exhausted.

'I'm fine. I haven't seen him since yesterday,' Haruhi shrugged then continued doing her homework, trying to ignore the topic of conversation.

'Whatever, you were pretty freaked during that thunderstorm. I mean, more than usual,' Kaoru refused to think she was fine, who would be I the person who raped them suddenly turned up again and still interested in them? The Host Club had all seen her when they had come to 'rescue' her after her and Hikaru's disaster of a date so they knew what she was like in a thunderstorm.

Haruhi glared at him then continued writing.

'You're still scared of thunderstorms? I supposed it was a pretty bad storm on _that_ night,' this time Haruhi ignored what Arai was saying completely. She didn't like being the focus of a conversation, especially one as hard for her to talk about as this.

_Stop talking about it, please. Forgetting about it was how I dealt with it last time. After that fight last night I'm pretty sure he won't be bothering me again anyways._

'There was a thunderstorm that night?' Tamaki had always thought Haruhi was scared of storms because she was alone in them but he was shocked to find the deeper meaning to Haruhi's darkest fear.

'Yup, I remember I was running so the boxes with the vegetables I was delivering didn't get wet, it was raining pretty hard,' Arai nodded looking distant as he pondered on the past.

'Don't we have to try and get Imutzu sent to prison or something?' Kaoru noticed Haruhi's annoyed expression and changed the subject although it annoyed Haruhi just as much.

'The only evidence we have is that he has a record of harassing girls, that is why he got expelled from his first middle school,' Kyouya looked up from his laptop, from which he had just found the information. He wasn't going to tell anyone that though, everyone just thought he knew this information from the top of his head.

'That's not going to be enough to get him sent to prison or anything. You should all just forget it,'_ like I did_ Haruhi silently added. She stood up and packed away her homework.

'He hasn't bugged anyone so far in Ouran has he? I mean, apart from Haruhi,' Hikaru was trying to think if he had heard any of the Host Club guests complaining about him.

'I haven't actually seen him today, maybe he left and my daughter shall be safe forever!' Tamaki rushed to glomp Haruhi at his joyous thought but she quickly sidestepped sending Tamaki flying into the corner where he stayed to sulk.

'Yup! Maybe Takashi scared him off,' Huni grinned and glanced down from his place on Mori's shoulders to his cousin's face that was blank as usual, but his eyes were clouded with doubt.

The host members plus Arai continued debating about various subjects although all of them were related to Hokari Imutzu and eventually Haruhi got fed up and left as quietly as she could. Mori noticed and followed silently to make sure she got home safely. He felt slightly guilty for leaving Huni behind but he knew the Lolita type would understand.

Mori was also right to be doubtful. In a huge bedroom in an elaborate estate, Hokari sat with the curtains closed among a mess of blankets on his bed. Maids hovered nervously outside the door. Hokari lay there silently and plotted his next move.

**Done! Phew, it took a while. Also I decided to share my joy with peoples! I got my exam result 92% in Biology WOOOO! *dance* Now I only have to keep it up for GCSE D: **


	6. Chapter 6

'Mori-senpai, I know you're there,' Haruhi stopped walking and turned around.

_How did she know I was here? _Mori had always had the knack of being invisible so why now, when he was trying to be invisible, did she sense him?

'I could feel you eyes staring at me,' Haruhi answered his silent question, his eyes gave away more than he thought, 'why are you following me?'

'To make sure you're safe,'

'Oh, well next time just tell me. I almost mistook you for a stalker or something,' Haruhi didn't think her sentence through.

_Ouch _Mori nodded anyway.

As they walked they were silent, Haruhi liked silence, it was peaceful. Mori, although he was silent himself found quiet environments uncomfortable, he usually had Huni to fill in the gaps. The silence felt slightly suffocating, suffocating to such an extent that he started a conversation.

'What do you really think of all this?' Haruhi peered up at him, surprised at the break in the silence.

'Truthfully, it's kinda annoying. I was trying to forget about everything and it then it came back in my face and nobody will give me a moment's peace,' Haruhi sighed.

'Don't you think something should be done about him?'

'Well, I don't see what can be done now, I agree I should have done something at the time but it's in the past now,'

'Why didn't you at the time then?' it was one thing Mori had been wondering about for awhile. What had made Haruhi refuse to go to the police?

'I dunno, I guess I panicked. By the time I was thinking logical thoughts, about a month later, there wasn't really any, Haruhi paused, thinking of the right word, 'evidence left. Plus, I'm surprised Kyouya-senpai hasn't found out yet, Hokari's father was head of the local police force, there was no chance of him sending his son to prison. He'd just make him change schools and take advantage of some other girl all over again.'

'Kyouya-,'

'Kyouya-senpai can't do anything, I do know one way I could catch him but I don't really want to do it...' Haruhi trailed off and Mori waited patiently for her to continue, when she didn't say anything he decided I was a topic best not to dwell on.

Mori was alerted from his pondering on the previous conversation by a small sniff, he peered down at the small brunette and was surprised to see her rubbing at her eyes, furiously trying to wipe away the tears that had escaped her eyes.

'Haruhi...' he reached a hand towards her but she pushed it away.

'I'm fine. I shouldn't even be crying. It's stupid and it doesn't achieve anything,'

'I'm not so sure,' Mori pulled her into his chest and she let the emotions of fear and hurt she had been carrying for the past four years pour out of her. Mori did what he was best at and remained silent, giving Haruhi his unvoiced reassurance.

'I couldn't tell anyone,' she managed to choke, 'I took my dad years to get over my mom dying so I had to pretend nothing had happened. If he knew then it would hurt him more than me,' Haruhi clutched at Mori's blazer tightly, 'why won't he let me forget? Hasn't he had enough? Everything was fine then he came back.'

'Nothing was fine, he hurt you and I don't intend to ignore it,' he lifted Haruhi's flushed and tear stained face to look at him, she tried to pull away and shook her head.

'No, I don't want to be a bother,' she tried to push Mori away but he was like a solid brick wall, strong and reliable. Mori lifted Haruhi up into his arms, ignoring her futile struggles. He placed her comfortably seated on one of his long arms.

'It would be a bother to nobody to see Imutzu brought to justice,' that was the last of the conversation, Haruhi feebly tried to object but all of her comments were met by silence so eventually she gave up. Mori walked along the streets, illuminated by the weak light of the half moon and the first stars peeking through the thin layer of smog that was almost constantly lingering above the city, the weather had cleared significantly throughout the day. He listened to Haruhi's steady breathing and he could swear if he listened hard enough he could hear her heartbeat. He felt strangely calmed listening to her breathing and heart quietly thudding in a soothing rhythmic pattern.

By the time he reached her apartment, Haruhi had fallen asleep in his arms. He body felt slightly hot, he was sure she had a slight temperature but hopefully nothing to be worried about. He pressed the doorbell and stood in silence, waiting for a hysterical Ranka to open the door, wondering why his daughter was so late home.

No reply came. It seemed Ranka was out working.

_So... now what?_

Mori looked at his surroundings as if he expected as answer to hit him right in the face. He looked at Haruhi's school bag, dangling from her shoulder and half-sliding off its position on Haruhi's lap. He felt guilty for looking through a girl's bag but quickly found what he was looking for and used the key to unlock the plain white front door to Haruhi's home.

The lock clicked smoothly and the door creaked gently and the door swung open revealing the Fujioka's kitchen and living space. It looked pretty much the same as the first time he had been inside Haruhi's apartment but he felt awkward being alone with her. He shifted her position so he could duck through the door. He then stood there.

_Should I put her on the bed, or the couch? I shouldn't really invade her personal privacy so probably the couch. But would she be comfortable? Bed it is._

He took a few long strides then stepped into her bedroom, the door was already open. He placed her resting form on the bed. She rolled onto her side facing him and mumbled something but stayed asleep. He listened to her breathing and looking at how petite and fragile she looked. Even though she had a boyish frame her face, if you looked closely, could never belong to a boy. That was how he had realised her true gender, that day he lifted her out of Tamaki's grasp. It may have also had something to do with the fact that, no matter how small they were, he had been touching her boobs. Mori turned a faint, almost unnoticeable shade of pink at the memory.

Not wanting to invade Haruhi's home any longer he turned and left, then stopped again when Haruhi whimpered then muttered more garbled words and thrashed around before slowly quietening down again. Mori went to check her temperature again, it was still the same but then he caught sight of the boxes of painkillers, headache tablets and sleeping pills scattered across her bedside table. This must be the first time she had managed to get a good night's sleep for days. It was Saturday tomorrow so he didn't have to be ready until midday for his Kendo class. He didn't like the idea of leaving Haruhi to wake up alone so he decided to stay.

He retreated to one of the cushions in the small living room and sat for what seemed like hours listening to the occasional scared moan or terrified whimper coming from Haruhi's room. Eventually he fell asleep, still sitting up with his neck straight. It looked almost like he was meditating.

The next time a thud woke him up it was about three in the morning according to the clock mounted above the kitchen counter. He peered into Haruhi's room and saw the 'natural type' curled up into a protective ball on the floor, seemingly unaware that she had fallen of her bed, also by the look of the red mark on her forehead she had bashed her head of the table too.

He bent to check her head then pick her up once he was assured it was nothing serious. He placed her back on the bed then tried to leave but his arm he had used to gently lower her onto the bed was now stuck in a vice like grip. Haruhi always found comfort in Mori's supportive silence, even in her sleep.

Mori sat down on the floor next to her bed. If he tried to pull his arm away she might wake up, ruining her night's sleep. He made himself as comfortable as possible, using the wooden bedside table to rest his back. Then he waited for morning to come.

**It looks like Mori is winning. 50% of people have voted for Mori out of four other choices. It could always change but it doesn't look that way although I did enjoy writing KaoHaru fluff ^^ The other pairings can have their fluffy moments but the overall paring with almost definitely be MoriHaru. If anyone feels they have ideas feel free to share them even if I can't fit them into this already almost completely planned out fanfic I can make a new fanfic after finished my other two as well as this one. Great, now I think I am writing rubbish... anyway, thanks for reading sorry for my randomness D:! **


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry, running out of stuff to write and I'm trying to decide whether one of my ideas is too dramatic and OTT. Is dramatic bad or will you readers be ok with it? Next chapter will be out when I hit 18 reviews, promise. I'm gonna aim for five reviews per chapter from now on ^^ It gives me something to work for.**

Haruhi yawned and rubbed her eyes, glancing around for the headache tablets, what she found wasn't quite what she expected to see in her room at eight in the morning.

'Mori-senpai, what the heck are you doing in my room?!' she sat up but couldn't climb out of bed because her arm was still twisted around Moir's wrist. Mori blinked sleepily once or twice then looked up at Haruhi calmly. Panicking inside.

'You fell asleep...' he gestured at his arm with his eyes, silently explaining the situation.

'Oh,' Haruhi calmed down a bit and unravelled her arm from Mori's, 'sorry I caused you so much trouble. Do you want breakfast, it's the least I could do.'

Before Mori had a chance to reply she rushed into the kitchen and started cooking, she was making a western style breakfast. First, it was easier than and eastern breakfast and second she hadn't had time to go to the supermarket so it was all she had. Whileshe was preparing the eggs she looked down realising she was still in her uniform from the day before so she turned the heat down on the hob and went back to her bedroom, Mori was still sitting on the floor as if obediently awaiting a command, to be honest he looked slightly lost without his pint-sized companion. Haruhi shifted her feet from side to side, trying to decide what to say.

'So...,' she took in his crumpled uniform, 'would you like to use the bathroom first and I'm sorry I don't know what to do about clothes.'

Mori nodded in gratitude, 'I have my Kendo uniform,' Haruhi passed him a towel then after she had shown him how to work the shower she left to get changed, she would shower later once Mori had gone. She put some clothes on without really looking at them; they were a comfortable pair of dark straight leg jeans and a longish pink top with a simple black belt. It was probably something her father had placed in her wardrobe after one of his infamous shopping sprees.

By the time Mori was finished he came out of the bathroom in his school trousers having left his kendo uniform in his school bag, Haruhi had finished cooking and was placing food on the table, a piece of bacon was already in between her teeth and she was slowly chewing it. She didn't look up she was too busy getting cutlery out and when she did she smiled and gestured to the empty space by the table (A/N: would they eat western food with a knife and fork orchopsticks?! Sorry I don't know D:)

'Would you like something to eat? My dad should be home by now but I guess he's staying at friend's house as usual. You can have his portion,' she sat down and shovelled her food into her mouth in the politest way possible. Mori slowly and silently lowered himself onto the floor and stated to eat as well. He was surprised how relaxed Haruhi was with him, normally a girl in her position and with her past experiences would be freaking out. That was one thing he had worried Haruhi would do once she woke up. He admired her courage and ability to get on with life. Once they had finished eating, Haruhi occasionally made small talk but mostly they ate in silence, Mori thanked Haruhi for the meal then got changed quickly for kendo, even if it was only nine thirty he would probably be wanted to help with the younger pupils in the class before his.

'Thanks, and sorry again for all of the trouble, see you on Monday,' Haruhi waved and smiled as she said goodbye to Mori.

~.~.~.~

Haruhi continued with her chores. She completed her homework as usual, did more laundry then went to the supermarket because they were running out of food. Once Haruhi had gotten back home her father's flamboyant presence was still absent.

'Probably drinking himself stupid at Ruku-san's house again,' she sighed. Normally if he was out drinking he would be back around nine having been in pubs all day. She started to prepare the dinner. It was nearly eight o'clock so he would be back soon. At about nine thirty Haruhi ate some of the fish and rice she had prepared, an hour later she ate some more then took out her homework improved on it. When it was nearly midnight she finally gave up and withdrew to bed. Her father nearly always came back because he worried about his 'Precious Haruhi'.

'He must really have drunk himself stupid this time,' Haruhi said loudly to herself, shaking her head. She curled up in the blankets prepared for a fitful night's sleep. She woke up a few times when she though she heard the front door open but each time it turned out to be a squeaky floorboard next door, the washing machine finishing it's cycle or just wind gently tapping at her window. Each time she woke up she would feel both fear of who it might be and relief that her father may have come home at last. She would get back to sleep a few minutes later after ramming more medicine into her system.

By the time morning came Haruhi felt like she had never even got to sleep and because she didn't have any chores or anywhere in particular to be she check Ranka's bedroom for a sleeping form that wasn't there then went back to bed to read textbooks and the occasional fiction book. She was trying not to get worried, Ranka had stayed out all weekend on the very odd occasion but that was only two or three times that she could remember.

'Where is he?' Haruhi would intermittently mutter, glancing at the small clock perched on her shelf. The hours were ticking by and nothing was happening. She almost wished the Host Club was there to fill in the empty space. Haruhi had started to drift off to sleep again in the warmth and comfort of her bed then the home phone rang.

Haruhi ran to pick it up, expecting it to be her father wailing apologies for him being away all weekend. It was Arai.

'Hi, Haruhi! I was checking everything was ok 'cause I hadn't heard from you in a while,' he sounded happy but with an edge of concern.

'Oh... yeah I'm fine,' she was disappointed it wasn't her dad.

'Sure?'

'Yes I'm sure. What's the big deal?'

'You know it's a big deal,'

'Whatever,' Haruhi rudely hung up and went to bed to try and get some sleep, as if that was ever going to happen, 'thanks for refreshing my memory,' she muttered. She was getting a bit fed up with people's hollow concerns when they wouldn't or couldn't do anything about it. Arai had been a comfort at first when she needed him but now he was just bugging her everying waking moment of her life.

After taking two sleeping tablets Haruhi managed to close her eyes for a couple of hours, at around nine in the evening the phone rang again. Haruhi woke up groggily and trudged over to the phone.

'Arai, if that's you again- oh, Kyouya-senpai? What?! I'll be right there,' Haruhi grabbed her coat, her expression switched between fury, calm and panic. Lack of sleep and stress were not a good combination.

_That's it. I don't care if I'm scared. Hokari Imutzu will pay for bringing my father into this._

**Ok, here we go. Sorry!!! It would have been finished sooner but I was reading Bleach. 148 chapters is her to read and I'm not even half way D: It is awesome though. I'm going to have to stay up late and write more chapters to make up for it :3 aiming for 20 reviews please ^^ Or at least 18 before the next chapter. OMG I'm sorry if I sound like a No0b T_T**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi people, hope you are having a nice weekend :3 This is a really early warning saying I won't be here for a lot of August and some of July cos I'm going to a wedding then going to Thailand. I'm hoping to smuggle my laptop to Thailand but that is very unlikely and it is even more unlikely that I will have internet connection so I will try and make up for it after unless I finish the story by then which depends on how many of my ideas I use in this story. Ok, I will finish talking crap and continue with the story.**

'Haruhi!' Tamaki ran towards her from the Otori hospital main entrance. Haruhi only stopped momentarily.

'Where is he?'

'Second floor, room 16,' Tamaki pointed towards the stairs. Haruhi ran up them, her usual sluggish running had changed to a speed almost as fast as Huni's. Tamaki followed behind her, 'Kyouya says your father is stable right now, you should calm down and not over-exert yourself.'

Haruhi ignored him and she found room 16, the door had a pull sign so when Haruhi ran into it expecting it to open inwards she smashed into it painfully instead. She ignored her throbbing head and tugged the door open.

'Haruhi? Was that attempting to break down the door?' Kyouya blinked, amused but not in the mood the tease her much about it. Haruhi stopped at the side of the hospital bed. She could hardly recognise him through the bandaged and tubes. She placed a shaky hand on her father's chest, feeling the faint thud of his heart against her sweaty palm.

'It's worse than it looks. He only has one broken rib, a few cracked ribs a broken arm and a lot of bruises. The internal bleeding has been stopped.'

'Only?' Haruhi knew it could have been worse but..., 'It's my fault he's like this,'

'I don't see how-,' Tamaki, who had fallen into the room after tripping on the corner of the door.

'Imutzu did this, he even pinned a note to my father's head! If I'd been thinking straight those years ago he would be in prison or something then my dad wouldn't be in a hospital bed,' Haruhi knelt on the floor next to the bed and rested her head on the sheet, watching her father's breathing.

'Oh yes, the note I told you about over the phone,' Kyouya handed Haruhi a small piece of bloodstained paper, 'they couldn't find any DNA on it apart from Ranka-san's.'

'Great...' Haruhi sighed sarcastically and opened the scrap of paper.

_Guess who?_

_I told you I'd get you for that little stunt your friends played on me._

_Next I'll get the big guy who hit me._

_My friends had fun beating up your poor weak daddy._

_If only you'd been quiet and let me play with you..._

_Love,_

_Me xxx_

Haruhi grimaced then looked back at her father.

'You guys can go now, you have school tomorrow,' Haruhi glanced at her watch, one thirty. Her eyelids and body felt heaving but her brain refused to slow down.

'But Haruhi-,' Tamaki whimpered.

'There's nothing you can do. I'll be fine,' Haruhi pulled a chair towards her father's bed then leant her head by his hand.

'Come, Tamaki,' Kyouya pulled his friend by the collar, down the stairs then shoved him into a limo before entering his own. _Why did I even bring the idiot?__I suppose if I hadn't told him we would have paid for it in the morning._

~.~.~.~

'We didn't think you would be at school today, Haruhi,' the twins looked up from their desks.

'Well I am,' Haruhi looked awful. She had deep rings under her eyes and her skin was pale. The twins observed as her hands shook when she tried to steadily lower herself into her chair. Instead she fell into the chair then sat looking vacant.

'Are you sure you should be here?' Kaoru bent next to her and inspected her face worriedly.

'I'm here now and I have some work to do so I'm not leaving,' Haruhi laid her head on the wooden desktop, 'now if you excuse me I got three hours sleep last night so shut up.'

'Geez Haruhi, how important could this work be? You could just do it tomorrow,' Haruhi eyed Hikaru with a slight evil aura, 'fine,' Hikaru mumbled. Put off by Haruhi's bad mood.

Haruhi didn't manage to catch up on any sleep. She had woken up at six in the morning to go home and get ready for school, remembering to pack a small handheld cam recorder her father treasured. _Sorry dad, but it'll help catch the man who did that to you._

At lunch Haruhi didn't eat anything, the hosts assumed it was because she was too upset about what had happened to her father (Kyouya had informed all the rest of the hosts plus Arai that morning).

Kyouya and Mori could read her eyes though and they didn't show sadness. They showed hidden fear. _But why fear? _It was true Hokari was back at school, smiling smugly to himself every time he saw one of the hosts, but Haruhi knew they wouldn't let Hokari Imutzu get anywhere near her.

'Kyouya-senpai?' Haruhi spoke up suddenly. Kyouya turned to her in surprise, 'is it true there aren't any security cameras in the bathrooms in the school?'

'...yes. Tamaki's father believes the students should have a certain amount of privacy,'

'Good job I brought one,' Haruhi murmured to herself.

After that Haruhi didn't say a word to any one unless spoken to. When she did her voice seemed to fight against her and came out a slightly raspy and squeaky. The twins didn't know what to do so they ignored her.

'Mr. Fujioka what is wrong with you today? You are normally such a good student but you aren't concentrating today,' the teacher eventually got fed up with Haruhi's out of the ordinary behaviour.

'Sorry Sensei,' Haruhi mumbled.

'Er... Sensei? His father is in hospital,' Kaoru whispered just loud enough for Haruhi, his brother and their teacher to hear.

'Oh. Well. Carry on,' the teacher finished awkwardly then resumed teaching.

'Thanks,' Haruhi sighed heavily then waited for the last half an hour of lessons to finish. As the minutes went by she felt more and more sick. Her stomach knotted in a thousand places and her head spun. The bell rang and Haruhi mumbled 'bathroom' then ran towards the closest girl's bathroom. Hoping it would be empty.

After throwing up yesterday's dinner and the breakfast she had shared with Mori she wiped her mouth and rinsed it out in the sink. She took off her blazer and pulled up her sleeves. Then she spent a few minutes washing her face and arms with cold water to freshen up and wake her brain out of the daze it had been in all day. She slowly walked towards the door and pulled it open, stepping out into the hallway. She didn't get very far.

A hand yanked her back in.

'Aren't I lucky we're all alone again,' hot breath brushed against her cheek. He licked her ear, Haruhi suppressed a shudder of fear and disgust, 'now I can finally finish what that interfering bastard Arai interrupted two years ago.'

'Get of me,' Haruhi said shakily through clenched teeth.

'Nah, that wouldn't be any fun. Aren't you even gonna look at me?' he grabbed her shoulders hard and pulled her around, Haruhi willingly spun around on her heels, 'shall we see if you've got any prettier since last time?' he pulled down at her shirt, ripping the top few buttons then leaning closer to her.

Haruhi's mind raced, memories form the past flashed behind her eyes and she screamed and kicked him. Hokari growled in anger and staggered back, using the wall to stop him from collapsing. Haruhi used the chance to try and get out the door.

_That's it, abandon the plan and get out of here. I can't take it all over again._Haruhi told herself and she tried to grab the door handle with trembling hands. She soon stopped when she couldn't breathe.

'What was that for bitch? You should've been a good little girl and listened to me. It's no fun killing them _before _the fun, your daddy put up less of a fight,' Haruhi squeaked and scratched at Hokari's hands. They didn't loosen their grasp around her throat. She kicked him again and his grasp loosened enough for Haruhi to gasp for air then attempt another scream. But then his hands closed again, harder. He rattled her like she was a sack of potatoes.

'Stop it!' he hissed and repaid the kicks she had given him. Something cracked. Haruhi let out a small whimper and went limp.

**Reviews please ^^ I likes them very much, flames or no flames. The next chapter is being written as you read this!!! Probably... Maybe... Aiming for 20 reviews, hopefully more ^^. :3**


	9. Chapter 9

**Ok, I got back from my trip then got a flu/bad cold (Not sure yet, oh the anticipation). Yay... I feel awful but started writing this chapter anyway because there is no chance of me getting to sleep at 10pm. **

**PS: Random disgusting fact – phlegm and Powerade (the energy drink) and M&M's (the chocolates) do NOT make a good combo D:**

**Now I will stop grossing people out like I did to the person sitting next to me on the coach and write the next chapter ^^ *insert coughing fit here***

'Hi guys. Where's Haruhi?' Arai walked in casually with his usual cap on his head, a red American football hoodie and a pair of loose jeans. It had become a common occurrence for him to be there and the ladies saw him as the 'poor adorable little commoner friend of Haruhi's'.

'The twins should know, they are in her class after all,' Kyouya adjusted his glasses uneasily and looked over at the twins who were eavesdropping on the conversation.

'Eh, nope,' Kaoru shook his head.

'She said she went to the bathroom but that was ages ago,' the twins waved their arms in sync to exaggerate just how long ago.

'You let her go to the bathroom ALL ALONE!' Tamaki shrieked and shook the twins by the neck.

'Uh, yeah. Unlike you we don't stalk girls and follow them into the bathroom,' Kaoru shrugged.

'We're not perverts like you,' they both smirked. Tamaki gasped in horror and retreated to his corner of doom.

'Haru-chan's been acting funny today,' Huni pouted and squeezed Usa-chan, 'I hope she's ok.'

'I've had all of the security cameras fed to my laptop since I got here. I haven't seen her or Imutzu although I did happen to pass him in the hallway earlier so he is present in school,' Kyouya turned his laptop around to show the hosts. Tiny squares filled the screen showing every hallway and classroom within a logical distance of the Host club and Haruhi's homeroom.

'Bathrooms,' Mori said.

'Eh?'

'No cameras,'

'Yeah Haruhi said something about it at lunch. What is she planning?' Kaoru frowned.

'Guys, I have no idea what the hell you're on about but I don't like this,' Arai seemed ready to dash out the door looking for her.

'Haruhi is always doing things alone. Just like during thunderstorms,' Tamaki crawled out of his corner and peered over Kyouya's shoulder until Kyouya 'accidentally' poked him in the eye with a biro to make him let go of his shoulder.

'She's probably in one of the bathrooms. She might just be upset about her dad and needed a moment alone but if I know Haruhi she's probably trying to sort everything on her own, like Tamaki said. It's just an idea but if Haruhi decided to confront Hokari for some stupid reason then maybe they slipped into one of the bathrooms before you got here and checked the security cameras,' Arai shifted his feet and his hand twitched towards the door.

'I agree. Huni-senpai, Mori-senpai, Hikaru, Kaoru and Arai go out to look for her. Tamaki and I will entertain our guests, there will be complaints if we as closed again,' Kyouya ignored Tamaki's whimpered complaints, 'keep your cell phones with you. I'll keep you posted if I see anything on the security cameras. I also advise you all,' he looked at the twins and Mori, 'split up by yourselves so you have more chance of finding Haruhi.'

'Got it,' Huni and the twins saluted and then the allocated people split up at the ends of the hallway, passing some confused Host Club customers on the way.

'Tama-chan and Kyo-chan are in the music room so you can go right in ladies,' Huni giggled at the startled girls as he went by and blew them a cutesy kiss. Hopefully that would leave them unconscious on the floor long enough for them to not ask difficult questions.

~.~.~.~

Although searching bathrooms in a school might not seem too hard when there are over one hundred it can get quite tiring and frustrating.

_At least I won't run into any girls because school has ended _Mori was flinging open the fifteenth or possibly sixteenth bathroom door to find it silent and empty. He honed his senses looking for the smallest amount of movement or tiniest rustling. His searches had been fruitless and the mobile sat dormant in his pocket telling him nobody else had had any luck either.

Mori continued down the next corridor, he was getting more and more worried, like the time Mitsukuni had gone missing in Kyouya's resort. He had ended up protecting Haruhi, Mitsukuni hadn't needed protecting. Maybe it was time he let his pint sized cousin grow up a bit.

An almost silent cracking noise caught his attention. The next bathroom was just around the corner. Mori hesitated outside the door. There was definitely somebody in there. Mori kept quiet and silently twisted the door knob, nothing happened. It had been barricaded.

_There could only be one reason for the door to be barricaded_.

Mori tensed all his muscles and slammed into the door. First it seemed only to crack then the whole door split and with a quick push it was reduced to a splintering mess. Mori had suspected right. Hokari growled angrily in an inhuman way. Haruhi dangled what seemed lifelessly against the wall. Hokari held her by the throat with one hand; in the other he tugged at her trouser leg. Her clothes were in tatters and her trousers were slipping down her hips. She looked dead, her face was deathly white and her lips had a bluish tinge, then one of Haruhi's eyes opened slightly and blinked straight at Mori.

'Get away or I'll squeeze her pretty throat until she dies. That's what I was planning anyway,' he laughed, Mori stood stoically, 'what? Not though of anything smart to help poor little Haruhi? It's not like I was going to _hurt _her, well... until she kicked me,' he hissed and turned back to Haruhi and shook her again. Haruhi emitted a small choking noise. Something clicked in Mori's brain and while Hokari wasn't paying attention Mori jumped on him, kicking him in the arm that was hold in Haruhi and grabbing the battered girl in one hand. He punched Hokari in the stomach then the jaw.

Hokari groaned and went silent. After tying the boy's hands and feet Mori pulled out his cell phone and sent out a message to Kyouya. It didn't matter if it said nothing but Kyouya would be able to used the signal to track him to anywhere in the school. Mori expected the host to arrived in a few minutes.

'The camera,' Haruhi managed to say, the circulation to her brain was starting to flow again and her cheeks had a slight rose tinge. She pointed to a device hidden behind a small basket containing different scented soaps, 'stop... from... recording,' she coughed a bit and winced as Mori placed her down. She touched her leg warily then flinched in pain. Mori switched off the video camera and turned back to Haruhi. He took his blazer off and covered her with it so she wasn't half naked.

'Why?' he bent down so he was at the same level as Haruhi.

'Why what?' Haruhi's voice was raspy and it probably hurt her to talk after being half strangled. (No duh)

'It was dangerous. Should have asked for help,'

'I didn't really plan Hokari to be here I just decided to be prepared so there was no need for me to ask for help,'

'You knew he would come,' Mori insisted.

'Yeah... maybe... but that's not the point. I have a video of him confessing to what happened years ago and trying to do it again. Even if his dad is head of police there is no chance of him getting out of this. Even if I only manage to get him for assault I guess it's better than nothing,' Haruhi shrugged casually but it was obvious she was shaking, 'I'm glad you came,' her voice cracked then she fainted.

**Ok, finished the chapter now I'm going to sleep. Thank you very very very very much for all of the reviews ^^ I will edit this chapter tomorrow night probably so if it is bad hopefully tomorrow it will be better :3** ***snot dribbles* eeeeeeeewwww DX**


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm getting better :D but not quite completely yet. Only one and a half more days of school WOO! One bad thing happened; my friend had her cheek punctured by her brace D: she had to go to hospital cos apparently she could have died but I wouldn't know cos I'm not a doctor, lol. She's getting better ^^ Now I will stop telling you about my life cos you probably don't want to know and now... onto the story!!! **

Mori gently picked Haruhi up, avoiding touching her damaged leg and carried her out from the bathroom. Away from the monster that had bruised her black and blue.

'Haru-chan?!' Huni came pelting around the corner, 'Takashi, where's that nasty Hokari. He hurt my friend,' Huni muttered darkly, his small fists clenching and unclenching.

'No, Mitsukuni.'

Kyouya emerged silently into the corridor, 'where is he?' Mori indicated to the bathroom then Kyouya ordered the two of his family's armed policemen he had called upon to go into the room. They exited soon after with Hokari over one of the men's shoulders with handcuffs replacing the fabric ties Mori had used (the shreds of Haruhi's shirt). Luckily the boy was still unconscious. Next one of Kyouya's private doctors stepped forward and examined Haruhi as Mori lowered her down again.

'Tamaki, the twins and Arai will be arriving shortly, Mori-senpai. Make sure they don't so anything rash,' Kyouya said then turned to the policemen and asked them to put Hokari in a cell somewhere until further notice. Mori nodded and caught the four men easily as they came screaming Haruhi's name. They scrabbled to reach Haruhi and see if she was ok.

'She's my daughter. I must see her now,' Tamaki wailed.

'It's not fair. We. Want. To. Kill. Imutzu. NOW,' Hikaru growled through clenched teeth and Kaoru nodded in agreement.

'Haru-chan is sleeping so be quiet please and Takashi already beat up Hokari and he's gone now,' Huni sat cross legged next to Haruhi, his face looked serious but he also looked ready to burst into tears.

'Let me go so I can see her then,' Arai hissed. Mori ignored him.

The doctor cleared his throat nervously, 'eh, Mr. Otori. Miss. Fujioka appears to have a broken leg, it has been shattered in one place here,' he indicated to a part of her lower leg, 'the attacker probably kicked her or hit her with a hard implement. She had also suffered from near strangulation as can be seen from the bruising. I would need to bring her into the hospital to check for concussion and treat her throat and leg.'

'Of course, gentlemen, let's go. The Host Club ladies are being entertained by Renge so we are all free to go to the hospital with Haruhi,' Kyouya headed towards the main entrance then turned around, 'Mori-senpai. Please carry Haruhi again and everyone else, let's act civilised in my family's hospital please,' he smiled in his Kyouyaish way and lead everyone to the awaiting private ambulance.

~.~.~.~

Haruhi moaned gently and tried to focus her eyes in the darkness, she recognised and tall dark haired figure sitting up in a chair, 'Mori-senpai,' she rasped, 'water please,' she felt a glass pressed against her lips and she drank greedily, trying to soothe the pain that seared across her throat, 'thank you,' she sighed.

'Haruhi,' Mori was the only one awake. Everyone else had fallen asleep almost two hours ago and Mori had ordered himself to keep watch of everyone.

'Mm,' Haruhi felt exhausted and slightly woozy from the pain killers the doctors had administered to her in her sleep.

'I don't understand why you did this alone. You are not stupid,' Haruhi kept her eyes closed but frowned slightly.

'He wanted,' she paused to breathe,' to hurt my friends... he said... he wanted to... hurt you,' she shifted slightly but couldn't move much because of the huge cast on her leg, 'I wasn't going to get... others pulled into... my problems.'

'It would hurt us more if you refuse our help, you need it,' Haruhi wanted to object but her words slurred together, Mori gently pushed her down buy the shoulder,' rest.'

Haruhi's breathing deepened and Mori sat silently watching her peaceful slumbering face.

'You seem to care for her as much as Huni-senpai, this is a surprising development,' Kyouya sat in an armchair with his arms folded. His hair was a mess but he had never truly been asleep just dozing.

'She needs more protection than Mitsukuni,' Mori explained monotonously.

'Are you sure that is the only reason you care?' Kyouya raised an eyebrow.

'Yes,' Kyouya made an amused 'mm' noise, 'but what I feel _because_ of that reason may be more than the need to protect.'

Kyouya smiled a small, genuine but amused smile, 'I see. Well good luck with that,' he then pretended to go back to sleep. Mori covered his sleeping cousin with his bunny blanket (that obviously came magically from nowhere) then stepped over Tamaki who was curled up on the floor, sleeping, and went out for to walk and to think. He knew Kyouya was awake so could watch Haruhi. He also knew that Kyouya had made him think of feelings he had never recognised before.

He passed a room labelled Ryoji Fujioka, Haruhi's father. He peered through the small glass window in the door.

The room was dark. Mori could just make out the outline of a figure on a bed. There was a tube in his mouth, helping him breathe, it was obviously working as the rise and fall of his chest was generally normal, possibly a bit shallow but Haruhi's irregular gasps seemed worse.

'Are you a friend of the Fujiokas?' a middle aged, average looking, brown haired doctor with a pair of black rimmed glasses smiled up at him, 'it's a bit late for visiting. Two in the morning by my watch,' the doctor yawned.

'I'm staying in Haruhi Fujioka's room, she woke up earlier,'

'Oh I heard about that from my colleague, her doctor. It's good that she seems to be getting better. I'll inform her doctor. Her father is also improving but he hasn't awoken from his coma,'

'I'll tell her,' the doctor nodded and smiled at Mori before heading off to what would probably be a cafe to drink as much coffee as he could in five minutes. Mori looked back at Ryoji through the window.

_Haruhi will at least have some relief knowing her father is doing well._

~.~.~.~

Later on that morning the host were surprised to find Haruhi awake before them. Mori felt ashamed that he had fallen asleep, forgetting his self given order to watch Haruhi. She was sitting propped on three pillows reading, or more flicking uninterestedly through one of the hospital magazines.

'Ohmigawd Haruhi are you ok?!' Tamaki woke up first and immediately targeted the poor, unfortunate Haruhi, waking up everyone else in the process. Apart from Kyouya who glared evilly at Tamaki and went back to sleep, putting designer earplugs in beforehand.

'Yup, my leg was hurting so I asked for some more painkillers. I'm all good now,' Haruhi put down the magazine and smiled reassuringly. Tamaki hugged her and nuzzled her face, Haruhi pushed him away weakly.

'Are you sure Haru-chan?' Huni sniffled whilst eating an emergency cake Mori had given him to stop him from being in a foul mood when he woke up. Haruhi nodded.

'Haruhi, did Hokari do anything?' Arai frowned seriously.

'Apart from beat me up, try to strangle me and break my leg. No,' the room seemed to sigh in relief, 'he, he was going to though,' Haruhi added, 'Mori-senpai was fast enough. Thanks.'

'Yeah, good going Mori-senpai,' the twins would have patted him on the head to say well done but he was too tall so they patted him on the back instead.

'Yay, Takashi!' Huni jumped onto his shoulders and waved his arms around like a toddler.

'...' Mori ignored their praise and studied Haruhi's face. She was a lot less pale than she had been last time she woke up. That was good, 'you father is doing well.'

Haruhi blinked, surprised by the sudden information, 'oh, thanks,' she grinned wider, 'that's good to hear. Now all I have to do is get Hokari punished.'

'We,' everyone corrected.

'Fine,' Haruhi frowned in defeat.

**MUAHAHAHAHA. NOW DIE HOKARI!!! *evil cackle* I'm updating fast cos I won't be here next weekend. I'm going to London (I live in Birmingham, England) for my cousin's wedding. Hope you guys all have a good summer!!! :D I hope the weather is good for all of you as well, wherever you are ;)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi everyone ^^ Sorry this chapter took so long. It was really hard and****I had my laptop confiscated for a few days ;_; I had to research about court hearings and even though there was some stuff, I barely understood it so please excuse anything that is wrong with this chapter, if there is anything so bad that it is bugging you please tell me and I will edit it ASAP. I'm away most of the weekend though... Hope you guys have a good time this weekend :D**

Haruhi sat next to her father, looking at his unconscious form while she brushed her short hair and smoothed the clothes the twins had given her. Haruhi hadn't really looked at it when she put it on. She just knew it was a formal suit with a knee length skirt.

Due to the Host Club member's high places in society they had managed to get Hokari's court hearing moved forward (also because of the serious matter of the case), they also had some of their best family lawyers working to make sure Hokari would be found guilty.

'Well Dad, get better soon. Imutzu is going to pay today I just know it, maybe Mom will help me,' she held his hand as she rose, 'I'm sorry I never told you what had happened but you didn't need any more stress in your life. I promise our lives will be better once this is all over.'

Haruhi grabbed her crutches then slowly departed from the room, the Host members were waiting for her at the main entrance to the hospital but Arai had finally had to return home, even though he had been there for the first incident it would raise a few question to why he didn't go to the police. They were all nervous, even if they didn't show it. Not only was it the court hearing but it was also the first day Haruhi had left the hospital. Her throat still bore bruises, although they were healing, plus her broken leg was far from healed.

The car ride was silent. The twins weren't really in the mood for jokes. This day was as important to them as it was to Haruhi, not that they personally wanted Hokari punished but they wanted him punished for Haruhi. She deserved it.

The hosts sat on the closest bench they could, they couldn't read the expression of Haruhi's face as she sat down next to her, or more the Otori's, lawyer. Mori sat closer than the rest of the boys because he was a witness, Arai would be there too but Haruhi didn't want his family finding out and cause him trouble. Also, the fact he hadn't gone to the police last time would arouse confusion. He hadn't gone because Haruhi had practically screamed hysterically at him not to; she hadn't been in the right state of mind at the time to think clearly.

Haruhi stiffened as she watched Hokari take his seat, once she saw the two huge guards standing next to him she relaxed slightly.

Members of the public started to enter behind the hosts. Amongst them was Hokari's family, his father stared daggers at his son's back. Hokari had done bad things before but this? He was appalled. It would ruin his job, his reputation, he would be glad to see the back of him though. Hokari's mother stood silent and proud, surveying the other public members with disgust. She sat down and adjusted her makeup with a small compact mirror. She obviously didn't want to be there and really couldn't care less of the outcome.

Eventually the court was hushed into silence when the judge walked in and took her seat, she had an air of authority about her and when her gavel thundered down the few people who were still whispering to each other were immediately silenced. As if they had been put on mute. (A/N: Yes, the judge is a woman and the gavel is the hammer thingy :3)

'We are here today for the hearing of Hokari Imutzu,' she spoke normally but her voice still rang around the room, 'accused of rape and assault. You have been reported for sexual harassment on several occasions but were allowed to go free due to lack of evidence or your father providing an alibi. This time the accusation is more serious. At our last meeting you denied everything, do you still plead innocent?'

Hokari was standing casually, leaning back slightly and looking bored. He folded his arms and stared lazily at the judge.

'Of course,' he sounded sure but he looked at his father for help then scowled when his father glared back and shook his head. The look said 'not a snowballs chance in hell. You've gone too far this time, stupid child.'

'Well then, shall we have the victim to the stand?'

'Sure, go ahead,' Hokari waved his hand dismissively. Some of the juries shot him an evil look, scowling at his behaviour. Hokari knew full well the question was not indicated at him.

'Haruhi Fujioka,' the judge called her.

Haruhi glanced backwards at her friends then proceeded to the stand.

'First question. Are the wounds you suffer today cause by Mr. Imutzu?'

'Yes,'

'Do you have any proof?'

'Yes, my lawyer has a tape filmed on the night of the attack that gave me these wounds and admitting to attacking and raping me three years ago,' the judges eyebrows raised as she was handed the tape, she studied it briefly then directed for the tape to be played.

It was played on a T.V that had been previously hiding in the corner. The hosts flinched as they watched Haruhi get battered around. There were a few gasps around the room when they heard Haruhi's leg snap, it was surprisingly loud and sounded incredibly painful (A/N: Go figure.)

Disgusted eyes focused on Hokari. There was one whisper of 'how could you?' as the video played on Hokari stood up from his chair, 'she wasn't listening, alright?' he yelled, 'I-I wasn't going to hurt her. Her big friend hurt me too,' his voice went up an octave as he panicked and waved his broken arm for everyone to see. He wasn't used to being caught out; he had his father to back him up. Nobody had ever really told him that what he was doing was wrong and when they tried to it was probably the only real attention he got from his parents.

'It's probably his bad upbringing, that's made him so ignorant,' one person whispered to their neighbour.

They nodded back but said, 'it still isn't enough for me to sympathise. By the sound of it too many girls have suffered.'

The judge paused the video.

'Mr Imutzu, please sit down and keep quiet. You are doing yourself no favours whatsoever. This video in itself shows us you were lying,' she then turned to Haruhi who had been sitting in the stands the whole time, 'when Mr. Imutzu says 'continue what was interrupted three years ago' is he talking about when he raped you, or so you say? How was it interrupted?'

Haruhi took in a shaky breath, 'yes. It was interrupted when he heard someone walking in the hallway,' the judge nodded. Some of the juries wrote down notes.

'Did he ever manage to fulfil this statement?'

'No, Takashi Morinozuka got there in time.'

'Well then, let's see if the video tells us the same,' the judge nodded to the person working the T.V and the recording continued. It showed Haruhi dangling semi-conscious from Hokari's hand and him attempting to undress her. His hand was just about the slip into her underwear when there was a crashing sound and a lot of dust, something hit the camera and it blanked out.

There were a few moments of silence then the judge asked, 'what was the video recorded on?'

'My father's video camera. I set it up in the bathroom of the school. I wasn't expecting Imutzu to show up but I prepared for it just in case. He had sworn before he would get me and I didn't want to take any chances.'

'Thank you. You may sit down,' Haruhi left the stand and sat down, her lawyer poured her a glass of water which she gratefully accepted, 'Mr. Takashi Morinozuka,' once Mori took the place where Haruhi had recently stood the judge started the questioning.

'Did, as Miss. Fujioka said, you find her in the bathroom? Being attacked my Hokari Imutzu.'

'Yes,'

'How did you know where to look?'

'We, the Host Club members, knew Haruhi was having trouble with Hokari Imutzu and when she didn't turn up for club activities we suspected the worst. While I was searching for her I heard a noise and when the door was barricaded I got suspicious,'

'I see... and did you break Hokari's arm and knock him unconscious,'

'Yes, Imutzu threatened to strangle her so I had to get his hand from her throat and he got knocked unconscious when he hit the wall,'

'Thank you. Please return to your seat and await the juries' decisions.'

After what seemed like an impossible amount of time the jury used her gavel to gain the people's attention.

'We find the defendant. Guilty. Hokari Imutzu sentenced to twenty years for rape, sexual harassment and assault. You will also have counselling to make you understand fully what you have done. '

Haruhi sat silently, not quite sure what to do now it was all over. There rest of the room was silent, and then there were a few cheers. Mostly from the Host Club but also from the general public. Obviously they thought the outcome was fair.

Hokari had and insane look in his eyes and was shaking his head in disbelief, he probably would have been screaming bloody murder but was too shocked.

Haruhi walked towards the hosts, her body was walking on autopilot. On the way she got stopped by a tired looking middle aged woman, long wavy brunette hair framed her face.

'Thank you for being so brave. My daughter had problems with that boy, she- she nearly killed herself. Now nobody will suffer,' Haruhi nodded blankly, her brain still wasn't responding properly. She then got surrounded by hosts.

The twins were doing a victory dance and Tamaki glomped her in the most gently way possibly so as not to touch her injuries. Huni skipped around her happily singing 'Dora the Explorer, We did it!' song. Kyouya gave her a quick pat on the shoulders and a nod of congratulations. Mori hovered until the commotion had died down then placed his hand on Haruhi's head and smiled. He was surprised when Haruhi leant in and hugged him quickly (and slightly awkwardly with a cast on her leg)

'Thanks for everything. You helped a lot to get this thing finally over,' then Haruhi pulled back and gave a small, tired smile.

'...' Mori blinked stupidly for a moment then was brought back to his senses by Huni slamming into his back. For such a tiny person he really did feel like a sack of potatoes being thrown at Mori's back.

'C'mon! We're gonna go get some food an' cake,' he giggled. Haruhi actually felt exhausted but she didn't want to ruin the happy atmosphere that had been absent for months.

At the 'casual' restaurant chosen by Tamaki, Haruhi nibbled at a breadstick while Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru yelled noisily across the table at each other, disturbing the whole restaurant while they were at it.

She felt a small buzz in her pocket, her cell phone (courtesy of the twins), was flashing a small orange light at her. It was the hospital.

_Maybe they want to check up on me_.

'Hello? Yes, this is Haruhi Fujioka,'

Silence on Haruhi's side of the line followed. It took a few moments for the hosts to notice Haruhi sitting, unmoving, with the phone held to her ear, 'Haru-chan?' Huni poked her arm lightly, 'who you talking to? Aren't you gonna say anything to them?'

Kyouya prised the cell phone out of Haruhi's hand and pressed it to his own ear, 'Hello? Kyouya Otori speaking I am a friend... oh, I see. Thank you, we will be there soon.'

'What's going on?' Kaoru glanced nervously at Kyouya and Haruhi's expressions. He leant into his brother's shoulder for reassurance.

'It seems Ranka-san took a sudden turn for the worse,' Kyouya said quietly.

'Is he OK?' Tamaki whispered. It was a question no one was sure if they wanted the answer.

'He's gone,' Haruhi choked hoarsely. She was sitting in the same position, her hand was shaking violently.

**Ok, I am so tired my vision is blurring. There is no way I'm reading through this looooooong chapter, I'd probably pass out from exhaustion. Goodnight. Tell me if there are any errors please ^^.**

**PS: Any review, no matter how small, means a lot to me. :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**I've been away all weekend and I'm waiting for the plot bunny to come and smack me over the head... Now I will attempt to write a chapter and I'm not sure how long it will take me. **

**Oh, and thanks very much to Arashi-senpai for helping me fix all the errors in the latest chapter. :D *gives triple chocolate cookie for your help* If anybody else sees any mistakes please point them out, thank you very much. :3 **

There was deathly silence. Tamaki and the twins gawked in utter horror, not sure what their reaction should be as they had never had to cope with anything like this. Huni looked like he wanted to hug Haruhi but was also trying desperately not to cry so as not to upset Haruhi any further. It was a bit late for that though, she sat looking completely traumatized and because of how independent she was it was hard to say whether she wanted comforting or if, as usual, she would rather suffer in silence.

The quietness of the table attracted almost as much attention as when it was being noisy and disruptive. A waitress, who was rather nosy, shuffled up to Kyouya and cleared her throat quietly.

'E-excuse me Sir, is everything ok,' she held her serving tray tightly. Kyouya was not the easiest man to talk to at the best of times.

'Yes, we'll pay the bill now,' he took a credit card out of his jacket pocket and handed it to the girl. He didn't really care what she did with it. He would cancel it within the hour so if she didn't use it to pay their bill, money wouldn't mysteriously start going missing to pay for expensive holidays and designer handbags.

The waitress didn't object and hurried off to the counter. When Kyouya turned back from his short discussion nobody had moved. He coughed inconspicuously catching the attention of Huni, Mori and Kaoru. Kaoru nudged Hikaru and they stood to leave. Kyouya had to hit Tamaki on the back of the head before he would respond, he still acted like he was in a trance so Kyouya lead him out of the restaurant. He looked to Mori, silently telling his senpai what to do.

Mori nodded and scooped Haruhi up and held her tightly to his chest, she curled into him automatically and held tight to his jacket as if she was in agony. Huni grabbed onto his cousins trouser leg, he would have held Usa-chan but he couldn't bring the stuffed animal to a court hearing.

Mori wasn't sure what to think. Did Haruhi mean gone as in dead? She hadn't been clear with her words and no matter how optimistic he tried to think all he could see was her expression as she had uttered 'He's gone.'

Mori had grown up being protective and trying to help people, mostly Huni, but death was one thing he couldn't protect people from and probably one of the only thing she feared. Not his death. But the deaths of people he cared about. Like when he was little and his dog had died, that was about as bad as his experiences got.

~.~.~.~

The car ride was silent; it was as if the morning's car ride had been repeated. Haruhi had finally moved her arm out of the position it had been in for a fair few minutes and was curled up tightly to Mori almost in a small ball. She was trembling and Mori could feel it, it pained him so badly to watch.

They were at the hospital in a relatively short amount of time and Mori continued to carry Haruhi to her father's room. He saw the doctor he had spoken to the previous night. He looked sorrowfully at Mori then at Haruhi but with sympathy was mixed in with the sorrow.

'Please come in,' he murmured. He allowed Mori to come in carrying Haruhi and he also allowed Kyouya to pass (because he partly owned the hospital) but he put an arm out to stop the others. Before they could protest he said quietly but sternly, 'I will have one of your friends come out soon to explain to you.

Mori let Haruhi down gently and she stood shakily on her feet and stumbled over to her father. He was hooked up to loads of wires and machines, he was also breathing. Mori felt relieved. He thought Haruhi had meant he was dead by 'gone'. But if he was breathing then why were Kyouya and Haruhi so sad? Did they understand something he didn't?

'We thought he was doing well but we overlooked a small injury he took to the brain, it was so tiny at first that when we ran a scan it appeared as an insignificant shadow. The doctor showed them an image of the brain and pointed at the injury.

_It's true. It doesn't look like anything out of the ordinary _Kyouya nodded, he had suspected Ranka's condition was due to bad medical care but that would make sense. Only the best of the best worked in Otori hospitals.

'He took the injury to the worst part of the brain he could... we have carried out as many tests as we know of... there just isn't any brain activity,' the doctor wiped his brown and swallowed, 'I'm afraid to say Ryoji Fujioka was declared brain dead about five minutes ago. We called you as soon as we could after we started the tests.'

Haruhi let out of small sob but kept her composure and nodded. Kyouya turned his head away, hiding his emotions.

'Mori-senpai, please go and inform the others. Mori obeyed and the followed the doctor as he left as well.

Haruhi stepped closer to her father, another sob or two escaped her lips. She touched his face, it was cool, not cold, but not very warm either, 'daddy, don't go,' she knew he couldn't come back. No one declared brain dead could. All that was keeping him alive were the machines. She could help it though, 'daddy,' she sobbed, 'please, I don't want you to go away.'

She cried, proper heart-wrenching sobs. Not like the time when Mori had comforted her, that was merely a sniffle compared to this. She was weeping uncontrollably. The last time she had cried like this was when her mother had died.

She crouched down next to her father's bed resting her head next to his and held his hand tightly. Kyouya stood awkwardly in the corner. He even let a few tears fall silently down his cheek then he stepped towards Haruhi hesitantly.

'Haruhi... if it makes you feel any better to know that he can't feel any pain,' Haruhi's sobbing didn't cease but she nodded her head in understanding. She was glad he wasn't in pain but, she thought it was rather selfish of herself, she was crying because she didn't want her father to leave her.

'Haruhi, it's not selfish to feel like that,' Kyouya did his creeping mind-reading thing. She cried harder, if that was possible, and let go of her father to clutch at an unsuspecting Kyouya. She needed something to hold onto. Something that felt _real_ her father felt like paper when she had held his hand, waiting for the small squeeze of reassurance that would never come. She buried her face into Kyouya's shirt and wept.

~.~.~.~

Mori stepped out of the room to a semi circle of worried and expectant faces. His face was unreadable but if something could make Mori shed a tear then it must be bad.

'Takashi... Ranka-san isn't... dead is he?' Huni asked. He hugged a random hospital teddy bear he had found and braced himself for the answer.

'No,' they all breathed a sigh of relief, 'but he may as well be.'

'What? How could you possibly say that?' Hikaru fumed, 'what could possibly be so bad that he may as well be dead? That's awful.'

Mori waited for a few moments while Hikaru's heavy breathing slowed again then he swallowed and spoke again. His throat hurt to speak, 'he's diagnosed brain dead.'

'Can't he ever come back?' Tamaki asked, 'I mean, if he isn't dead then there has to be some little bit of hope doesn't there,' he said it more as a statement rather than a question, willing it to be true. He knew what it was like to lose a parent. It had happened to him once but _twice? _How could Haruhi manage that?

Mori shook his head and Huni spoke for him, 'it means that all that is keeping Ranka-san alive is those machines. His brain is broken and it can't be fixed. No brain waves can get to it so the machine has to do his breathing and stuff for him,' he explained in a simple way. Huni didn't look it but he understood a lot of things better than most people and was in the top five smartest in his year, along with Mori.

'Haruhi, we need to comfort her,' Tamaki went towards the door but Mori stopped him.

'Don't crowd her,' he stated and Tamaki withdrew.

'Haru-chan will come out in her own time. I think we should wait here,' everyone nodded mechanically. They weren't crying. They were upset for Haruhi, terribly, but they could hear her sobs and that was enough to keep them silent. If they were going to cry it would be subtly and silently. This, for some people, would be a little out of character but this wasn't an ordinary matter.

Back in the room Haruhi was still clutching to Kyouya and sobbing. He had remained silent and held her until she went quiet and fell asleep. He placed her gently in the armchair next to her father's bed and covered her with a spare blanket, brushing a strand of hair from her face. She would have looked peaceful but her face was pale, around her eyes were red and puffy and her eyelashes were stuck in clumps from the tears.

Everyone saw Kyouya as heartless, The Shadow King. They failed to see his sometimes, kinder motives. Haruhi had seen them that time when they went to the beach. He shook his head as he went to update the rest of the hosts, Haruhi must have been terrified when he pulled that trick. If he had known her past experiences he would never have done something like that.

The hosts looked expectantly at him, probably hoping he would say _it's a miracle! He woke up and we're going to live happily ever after! _Unfortunately that was not the case. 'She's sleeping,' Kyouya stated simply then sat down heavily in a plastic chair that was in a line next to the ones everyone else was sitting on, then regretted it because the chair was highly uncomfortable. He rubbed his temples then looked up wearily when the nervous doctor from earlier shuffled up to him.

'Mr Otori. Ah... I've seen that Miss Fujioka is sleeping. I will tell her in person but if you see her first could you tell her she has to decide when to switch off the life,' the doctor slowed down when a very tired and pressurized Kyouya glared at him, 'support,' he manage to utter. He tried to finish the sentence and he managed to, but it came out as a squeak, 'machine.'

'Thank you, could I have that please,' Kyouya ignored the doctor and took a vase from a passing nurse, she was probably going to fill it with flowers for one of the patient's rooms. The poor young nurse just nodded then scurried away to fetch a new vase.

'Kyouya, you're not going to hit him are you?' Tamaki asked cautiously, 'it's not his fault. Don't lose your temper.'

'Shut up, Idiot,' Kyouya stared ahead coolly then punched his fist into the vase, shattering it completely. Tamaki shut up. Kyouya surveyed the damage to his hand then turned to the doctor with his scary smile, 'thank you for telling me. I will be sure to tell her.'

Once the doctor had left, looking slightly dazed and bewildered, Huni ventured up to Kyouya, 'Kyo-chan, is you hand ok? It's all bleedy.' (A/N: Yes, he said bleedy not bloody. Don't ask me why)

'I'm fine Huni-senpai,' Kyouya smiled again. It was a smile that said _disturb me and your face will end up like that vase. _Huni made a small noise that sounded like 'meep' and crawled back to Mori. Everyone now understood how Kyouya managed to keep a calm face all of the time.

Haruhi lay awake. She had managed to fool Kyouya into thinking she was peacefully asleep which she thought she could never pull off. She lay awake, staring at her father's face. The tear kept falling and Haruhi didn't know when they would stop.

**OK. The chapter is complete. I had a limited time to type it because my mum thinks I use my laptop too much (true) and keeps confiscating it for the smallest of reasons. Jeez... parents, I'll never understand. If there are any of you out there waiting for romance then there might be some very soon, it depends on how the ideas develop in my head. **

**Reviews please, I'm not asking for an essay. Even a couple of words are enough for me. Just to let me know there are people out there reading this. **


	13. Chapter 13

**This will probably be the last time I update for over twenty days because I'm going to Thailand soon and I'm not sure how bad the jetlag will be when I get back... then there is school again *sob* but the beginning of the school year is normally quiet so that's good. I just need a new hiding place for my laptop so my mum won't find it *shifty eyes*.**

'Morning,' Haruhi uttered, her throat felt husky and dry. She didn't bother trying to smile, there was no point.

'Gwahdwg!' Tamaki fell out of his chair when Haruhi's voice woke him up and he fell noisily onto the disinfectant scented, light blue marble-effect floor. The others, apart from Huni and Kyouya groaned and sat up in their chairs, stretching their backs to awaken their bodies from an uncomfortable sleep. The two remaining asleep had earplugs in, Huni's had been placed by Mori and Kyouya had put his in himself.

'Shut up Tono,' the twins grumbled then blinked at Haruhi's appearance. Her eyes were swollen, her hair was a mess and her cheeks were pink and shiny form the layer of salty tears that covered them.

'Did you get any sleep Haruhi?' Kaoru asked quietly, Hikaru pulled her arm so she fell down into the seat next to them. Haruhi rubbed her eye with the hand Hikaru wasn't holding and nodded.

'I think I got a couple of hours, I don't really remember,' Haruhi blinked a few times and her eyes went unfocused, she fell slightly to one side but the righted herself. Mori appeared in front of her with a mug and held it out to her. She looked up at him with a zombified (A/N: not a real word but whatever) expression, then at the mug that was radiating heat.

'Coffee,' he muttered and placed it in her hands, making sure the napkin wrapped around it was properly in place so she wouldn't burn herself. Haruhi sipped at it and rolled the hot liquid around on her tongue before swallowing it. She couldn't taste anything. Her senses were numb. She didn't even feel it as the liquid scolded her throat and it trickled down into her oesophagus. (A/N :D I used a fancy word! I actually did learn something this year in biology *shock*)

The four boys stood awkwardly as Haruhi slowly downed the bland hospital coffee, Hikaru was the first to break the, almost, silence (Huni was snoring gently), 'Haruhi, the doctor last night, when you were asleep, told Kyouya-senpai you have to decide-,' Haruhi cut him off.

'I wasn't asleep, I heard. Please, I don't want to hear it again,' Haruhi said painfully, almost causing Hikaru to wince, 'and I've already decided,' she took a deep breath and made sure she was happy with her own decision, 'today. I'm going to switch it off today.'

'So soon?' Tamaki asked in a hushed tone.

'Yeah,' Haruhi smiled sadly, 'then he can be with Okaa-san (mother) again. He misses her a lot and it's not like he's doing much down here.'

Tamaki and Mori smiled slightly and softly at her strange logic, this time Kaoru broke the silence, 'I'm sorry if this seems like prying but don't you have any grandparents, aunts or uncles who should be here?'

My okaa-san's parents both died before I was born as well as my otou-san's (father) dad. My last Obaa-san (grandmother) died about three, four years ago. Just before Imutzu happened,' Haruhi then frowned, 'I do have one oji-san (uncle), on my dad's side but he hates Otou-san with a passion, he doesn't like me much either so nope, I guess there isn't anyone else.'

_Just before Imutzu happened? So that's another reason she didn't tell her father. .. _Takashi thought. _If she's got no other family, or family that cares about her, then who is going to look after her now? Kyouya has already explained the situation to the school but what about home? She can't live by herself can she? Haruhi isn't old enough to live by herself._

Mori's mind was beginning to wander then was interrupted by Kyouya who was up and cleaning his glasses with what looked like an expensive silk cloth. He placed them on his face and pushed them up the bridge of his nose, 'I see you have made a decision Haruhi. If you like I could go find the doctor,' _and get some coffee AND an aspirin AND freshen up a bit _he added silently.

Instead of objecting Haruhi just nodded and looked down into her coffee cup, 'thanks,' once Kyouya had left she sighed and leant to one side on one of the twin's shoulders, she didn't know which. She didn't realise that Hikaru and Mori were both burning with jealousy, although Mori was a _teeny _bit_*cough a lot cough* _less obvious.

_How can I be feeling jealous at a time like this _Mori mentally scolded himself and occupied himself with finding Huni some cake and collecting everybody's overnight bags that Kyouya had order to be brought. They had all fallen asleep before the bags could be handed to them.

~.~.~.~

By the time he returned Haruhi was talking to the doctor, who told them to call him Ichiro, he seemed to be confirming Haruhi's decision with her and judging by the tired and annoyed look on Haruhi's face it wasn't the first time he'd asked 'are you sure?' Haruhi just kept nodding.

'Look,' she finally said, 'you're wasting time. My dad's lying in there and I'm pretty sure he'd rather be with my mother than here doing nothing. He's dead already; I accept that, having a machine keeping him breathing isn't really living.'

'My, you're awful calm about this,' the doctor gave a mirthless chuckle.

'Oh believe me, I'm not calm,' the doctor stopped smiling.

'Well, would you like to be alone or...' the doctor gestured at the hosts dotted around the waiting room. They all looked bedraggled, the twins looked like a pair of alley cats. The only person who looked presentable was Kyouya but it seemed his hair didn't like him this morning as there were two or three random raven coloured clumps of hair sticking out defiantly.

'I'd prefer to be alone but you guys can come in if you want, I guess,' Haruhi shrugged, probably to cover up the fact her shoulders were shaking. She failed epically and only seemed to make her shoulders shake worse.

'We'll stay,' the twins and Tamaki replied. Huni nodded.

'Me too,' Huni was followed by Mori and Kyouya who simply nodded in agreement with the others. As Haruhi went into the dark room that her father lay in the boys just stood there. It was unsettling how quiet they were. Huni sat on the floor and withdrew Usa-chan from his overnight bag. He stared at the stuffed bunny blankly and pulled at a loose thread.

Kyouya clapped his hands, 'come on boys and get changed so you at least look _nearly _presentable,' silence followed, '...' Kyouya hit Tamaki on the back of the head with his notebook; Tamaki fell forward onto the floor squealing,

'Yes sir!' then started taking clothes out of his bag and removing his dirty shirt. The others grabbed their bags.

'Tamaki,'

'Yes, Kyouya?'

'The bathroom,' Kyouya pointed to a door down the hall.

'Oh. Right,' Tamaki picked up his bag and went to the bathroom, passing a girl on the way who fainted at his shirtlessness. Kyouya shook his head then sat in one of the plastic seats and silently wrote in notebook, he could hear the doctor's murmurings through the thick white painted door. Probably explaining what he was going to do, not that he need to explain to Haruhi, she understood everything and it was more upsetting the longer she had to wait.

After half a minute there was silence. The twins had returned.

The doctor came out after another half a minute. He had to check one final time for any chance of brainwaves and breathing. There was no chance, but it was the formal procedure. By the time the doctor had emerged, Huni and Mori had returned. Mori was just fixing the collar of Huni's pale pink polo shirt.

The doctor nodded at the boys then sighed and disappeared down the hallway, probably to fill in forms.

There were a few minutes more of silence, it could have been hours but time didn't really mean anything on days like these. Tamaki appeared after a while; they all sat about staring at the floor or leaning against the wall thinking about nothing. The only thing that broken the painful monotony was calling parents to tell them they were OK. Their parent knew where they were but none of them had been home in over twenty four hours.

At one point Tamaki turned on the T.V that hid in the corner above a vase of pink roses and white lilies. The T.V didn't stay on for long. There was news report about the 'Tragic life of a sixteen year old girl,' after years of injustice, she finally got what was right then was suddenly left with no one to care or love for her.

_The last bit is a lie _Mori thought as his mind played over what had just been on the television, even if the screen was now blank. All of the hosts could see the picture of a sad thirteen year old with long brunette hair and huge brown eyes in a tired face, it was her school picture and the hosts could all guess what year it had been taken.

'Whatever you guys do-,' said Hikaru.

'Don't let Haruhi watch T.V,' Kaoru finished just as the door of Ranka-san's room opened. Haruhi stepped out. Mori could see the form covered in a white sheet on the bed behind her.

The silence seemed to drop to a new level.

'Let's go home,' she whispered.

'But Haruhi,' Kyouya said gently, 'you're not old enough.'

'The doctor called my uncle,' she said the last words with venom, 'he's asked the landlady to watch me and he's picking me up after the funeral.'

'You can still come to Ouran, right Haru-chan?' Huni came up to her and hugged her on the side without the cast on her leg. Something only Huni could do.

Haruhi looked down at him without emotion, 'yeah. He lives closer to Ouran than I do now.'

''Kay, then we'll look after you,' Huni assured her before letting her go, 'I can drop you home,' Haruhi didn't reply as Huni pulled her gently by the hand and led her by the arm out of the hospital. Mori followed and collected files and papers at the reception. The hosts remaining slowly dispersed. This Golden Week was going to be memorable.

For all the wrong reasons.

**I've got loads more ideas that hit me near the end of writing this chapter, including some fluff VERY soon. I think the angst is going to continue but get better (well, it can't get any worse can it?) I'm hoping to get another chapter done in the next nine days or I'm afraid you'll have to wait. I have two fanfics to update before I go and het one that gets the most reviews will be my first priority. My other fanfic got eight for the most recent chapter... that's a big number for me so it will be hard to beat 3 **


	14. Chapter 14

**I'm back! Relatively tanned (for me, I have mostly Irish skin so I usually just get a face covered in freckles 3) and covered in mosquito bites, so... itchy... ARG! Anyways, hope you enjoy the latest chapter ^^. **

Mori was heading to pick up Haruhi for the funeral, Huni sat silently next to him, clutching Usa-chan who was clad in a matching tux to Huni's. Huni was wearing a navy suit and a pink shirt underneath; Mori was wearing the same as Huni but with a lilac shirt and, obviously, a few sizes bigger. He watched cars and houses fly past as the car drew closer to Haruhi's home.

Mori remembered the last thing Haruhi had said to him when they dropped her home from the hospital, _'oh, tell everyone that dad made me promise nobody would wear black to his funeral. He said it would be awfully dull to look at from heaven,' Haruhi smiled wearily but happily at the memory. _Mori thought how Ranka-like it was to ask something like that. At least the memories Ranka left were happy.

When the car pulled up outside Haruhi's apartment, she was standing in the open doorway, her suitcase with all of her belongings sat behind her. She would be coming by later to collect it with her uncle. She was wearing a spearmint (blueish mint) coloured dress with black flowers creeping up from the bottom of the dress and a black ribbon around the waist. It finished just above the knee, she also had a back shrug cardigan to wear over it and some plain silver flats to match her Alice band (Type of hair band which shares my name :D).

She hopped slowly down the steps, using her crutch to lever herself onto the next step, when she reached the car she was surprised to see Mori, _Mori _of all people, gawking at her, 'my dad always wanted me to wear it, is it ok?' Mori got a hold of himself and nodded, stoic mask back in place. He opened the car door and moved over so Haruhi could sit down. She shuffled into the car then looked at the apartment she had lived her life in. She wasn't one to get attached to objects or places but she would be sad to leave. Huni, in the last five minutes of the ride to Haruhi's house, had fallen asleep.

Haruhi, now safely seated, looked over at the slumbering boy and almost felt like joining him but doubted she'd actually manage to sleep. She rubbed her eyes in a vague attempt to eradicate the weariness which has hung over her for... days? Or was it weeks? She wasn't sure. She couldn't remember. Blinking blearily she looked at Mori in the opposite seat, and then blinked again. _Is he staring at me? Yes, definitely. Why? Had he lied earlier, do I look like she'd walked through a hedge backwards? Worse? There was only one way to know for sure. Ask._

'Do I really look that bad?' she ran a hand through her hair, taking the Alice band out then replacing.

Mori looked confused for a moment (or at least felt confused) then realised he'd been staring at her when he blinked and liquid seeped back to his eyes. He shook his head and averted his eyes, blushing lightly from being caught staring at her _again _in the last three minutes_._

Haruhi leant over and put one of her hands on his forehead. Mori froze. _What is she doing?_

'You're hot,' Haruhi commented. _What was she_ **_saying?_**

'Do you want me to open the window?' she tilted her head to look him in the eye. Mori shook his head and went back to staring out the window, feeling stupid for misunderstanding but still wishing it was not a misunderstanding but what she truly felt.

_It's only ever going to be a dream. Hear me Takashi. D R E A M. _(A/N: Mori talking to himself in his head)

Haruhi exhaled deeply (Not sigh, very different. Well, probably same thing but never mind), 'we're here,' Mori nodded and picked Huni up off of the seat.

The rest of the hosts were waiting for them nearby. Huni was awake, rubbing his eyes and stumbling over his own feet when he reached them. There were various forms of the word 'hi' mutter by each host which Haruhi returned. The twins were wearing matching brown suits with emerald green waistcoats, white shirts and patterned gold buttons to finish it off. Kyouya was wearing a very dark navy suit with a deep purple shirt. It was probably the suit furthest from black he owned. Tamaki was wearing a light blue suit with a white shirt.

Almost automatically they turned towards the small temple where the funeral was taking place in thirty minutes. The courtyard was already heaving with at least 70 people, a third of them cross-dressers. Misuzu was there as well as his daughter Mei. (From the manga) The taller girl clad in a pale pink dress with a white belt literally flung herself at Haruhi.

'Are you OK?' she asked. Concern and tears heavy in her voice. She pulled away. Haruhi gave her a tiny smile and nodded in response. Misuzu also hugged her and wailed,

'Oh you poor child!' Haruhi tried to say that she was alright but was too busy being smothered by Misuzu's frilly monstrosity of a dress.

Other people started to crowd Haruhi. Ranka had been a popular person. Even if he had some... odd hobbies. Everyone who knew Ranka knew Haruhi. They found losing both a mother and father by age sixteen something incomprehensible, even if the child it happened to have a will of steel. The sympathy they felt for her turned into a game of pass-the-Haruhi as people took it in turns to show her their support.

'Why do they keep asking if she's ok?' Kaoru asked confusedly.

'Yeah, her dad just died. What do they think?' Hikaru frowned.

'It's a common thing to do at funerals, a way of showing support. I'm assuming by your confusion that the both of you have never been to a funeral before today,' Kyouya said. The twins shook their heads.

'Nope, never.'

In fact, only Kyouya and Huni had ever been to a funeral and those were for grandparents of family friends they barely knew.

Haruhi had stopped being passed around and was now stepping into the temple with the rest of the crowd. Huni glanced around as they followed the throng through the wooden doors.

'There isn't anyone who looks like Ranka-san. Where d'you think Haru-chan's uncle is?' he asked no-one in particular.

'Didn't he come to his own brother's funeral?' Tamaki was mortified. Neither of their questions was answered as the funeral began. (A/N: I'm not going to go into any detail about the ceremony because Japanese funerals are very different to English funerals. I tried to learn about them but just got confused X_X)

Throughout the service Haruhi stared almost absently ahead. Tears trickled silently down her face as she stepped forward to offer incense before the urn that contained all but the memories of her father. Tamaki was more hysterical than her, he was close to wailing point before somebody (possibly one of the twins. Or maybe both of them) shove a couple of socks in his mouth to keep him quiet.

Afterwards they went to the grave which was adjacent to Haruhi's mother's grave. Haruhi placed down the first white lilies and incense, she had done the same for her mother less than a week ago. Those lilies now looked sad with their heads bent. Dew occasionally trickled from the drooping petals like tears.

After her a young girl shuffled forward and placed down a bouquet of daisies she had tied together with a pink ribbon. She was the five-year-old daughter of Haruhi's next-door neighbours. When she had placed them gently next to the fresh lilies she went back to her mother. The woman smiled sadly and picked up her child. Although the girl didn't fully understand the concept of death she did know that the pretty man who said good morning to her every day was gone. And he wasn't coming back.

While other people were paying their respect, a man tapped Haruhi on the shoulder. She turned around to face him.

'Glad you could make it,' she hissed sourly, 'pity you were late.'

'It's not like a missed anything important,' the man, Karasuma Fujioka smiled without warmth, 'let's go.'

'Bastard,' Haruhi muttered. She was, clearly, angry. She had a good reason to be.

**Hello everybody ^^. Sorry I didn't have chance to update before I went away D: The good news is I have written two chapters in my notebook and just have to type up the second one (this was the first) so there will be an update very soon. I have seven more days before school starts again :P so I'll try to get the next chapter up.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello everybody, as I have written on all my other fanfics that need updating, I don't know how long it will be until I can update after today because my laptop is slightly busted from falling down the stairs then my sister pushed it off my bed or something (thank you mum and sister for that...) Anyway, here is the next chapter and hopefully it won't be too long until my poor laptop is fixed. *sob* I don't want it to die!**

_While other people were paying their respect, a man tapped Haruhi on the shoulder. She turned around to face him._

'_Glad you could make it,' she hissed sourly, 'pity you were late.'_

'_It's not like a missed anything important,' the man, Karasuma Fujioka smiled without warmth, 'let's go.'_

'_Bastard,' Haruhi muttered. She was, clearly, angry. She had a good reason to be._

~.~.~.~

Huni turned away from the grave after placing a box of cakes there. He saw the man with Haruhi.

'Look!' he pointed excitedly, 'Haru-chan's uncle is here!' there was no mistaking it, the man looked like a younger version of Ranka, minus the make-up and long hair, 'I wonder why he was late to the funeral. Maybe it his car broke.'

'Whatever made him late, he certainly doesn't look too happy,' Hikaru and Kaoru observed the man who was frowning angrily.

Karasuma hit his niece across the face. Haruhi lost her balance and dropped onto the floor, her crutches clattered noisily and she just clipped her head on the edge of a tombstone, 'how _dare _you speak to me like that. I've heard what a little whore you've been as well. You're lucky I'm letting you even sleep under my roof!' he snarled.

Haruhi kept her head bent and tentatively touched the newly acquired bruise on the back of her head. She winced when she found it, something in Mori's, mind clicked, he ran forward and plucked Haruhi from the ground.

'She won't have to sleep under your roof,' he muttered angrily.

'Who the hell do you-,' he was cut off when Mori hit him on the neck. Karasuma slumped onto the ground. Haruhi blinked down at her uncle laying motionless then at Mori, wide-eyed.

'Unconscious,' he explained.

'Oh, you have to teach me how to do that for next time Tamaki tries to hug me,' Haruhi managed a smile which Mori returned. Then they realised it was silent. They turned around, everybody was staring at them. Haruhi blushed a pretty shade of scarlet, 'Uh... Huni-senpai?' Haruhi reached for her crutches on the floor as Mori started to lower her, 'can you pass me my crutches? I can't reach.'

'Okie dokie,' Huni happily skipped forward and scooped up the discarded crutches off of the grass and then handed them to her.

'Thanks,' Haruhi muttered, letting go of Mori's hand almost reluctantly.

'How long will he be unconscious for?' Kyouya looked down at Karasuma while the twins poked the unconscious man and debated whether to draw on his face with a permanent marker.

'Half an hour,'

'I see. Haruhi, you have twenty five minutes then I advise you leave the premises. Hikaru, Kaoru, put the pens down,' the twins muttered dejectedly and went back to just poking him.

'Where am I meant to go?' Haruhi rested on one of her crutches and prodded her cheek hesitantly to check for bruising then she moved her hand back through her hair and wiped the slight warm stickiness off the back of her head.

'You can come with me,' Mori offered.

'Eh?!' Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru did not like that idea. Haruhi looked uncertain herself.

'Takashi's mom would love to have you stay in the Morinozuka household,' Huni reassured her happily.

'Is it even possible? My uncle still has custody of me,'

'I'm sure he won't be too bothered of handing custody of you to somebody else,' Kyouya had produced a small notebook from his jacket pocket and was making notes, 'when he comes to the reading of the will tomorrow I will have a conversation with him.'

'Why don't you stay with me~,' Tamaki whined.

'Thanks but no thanks, senpai,' Tamaki whimpered pitifully as Haruhi took a step away from him and a step closer to Mori.

'I don't blame her Pervert-san, who knows what you would do to her if you had the chance,' the twins sneered slyly, laughing as Tamaki's face went red with rage. Before an argument started Haruhi decided to cut in.

'I'm going to go say goodbye to my parents,' then she briskly turned and walked towards the nearby graves, Mei put an arm around her.

'You OK? That looked like it hurt,' she whispered, turning Haruhi's face so she could inspect the slightly reddened skin on her cheek.

'I'm fine. My uncle stank of alcohol. I hope being knocked out will sober him up a bit,' Haruhi shrugged indifferently. Dealing with drunkard idiot or, in fact, idiots in general were nothing new to her.

'That guy. Tall dude, amazing gravity defying hair, doesn't talk much. Can't remember his name. The one who helped you. He's pretty awesome isn't he?'

'You mean Mori-senpai? Yeah he's helped me a lot,' Haruhi smiled then bent down to arrange the multitude of flowers that had been placed around there, 'I guess he's the only sane on in the host club apart from Kyouya-senpai but Mori-senpai isn't evil.'

'Do you like him?'

'Yeah, I guess,' Haruhi turned to face the blonde girl who was giving her a look that said 'that is so cute, you do don't you?', 'what?'

'Do you _like _like him?'

'W-what? I uh...,' Haruhi looked confused. She didn't really know _how _much she like Mori. She like him more that the other hosts and now that she thought about it she liked him more than the other hosts by a lot really.

'Ohmigawd you do!' Mei squealed.

'This is a funeral you know,' Haruhi tried to change the subject so she could think about it by herself.

'But that's just what Ranka-san would say~,' Mei insisted. Haruhi sighed and stood up, brushing down her dress.

'Maybe I do but I'm not sure yet. I'll tell you once I do know, happy?' Haruhi sat down on the grass again and looked at the two gravestones deep in thought.

'Yup,' Mei grinned then decided it was time to leave Haruhi alone so forced herself to go find her father.

Haruhi glanced at her watch and heaved a sigh. She felt the small sticky patch on her scalp and looked at the redness that was now on her hand them clambered awkwardly from her position on the ground, 'time to go. Bye Mom, Dad,' she came up behind Mori, 'so... now what?'

Mori indicated to the car that had brought them there and they left immediately, Karasuma was stirring and would probably wake up with one heck of a hangover. She waved a hurried goodbye to the others before heading towards the open door of the car.

'Your suitcases,' he pointed to the two cases in open boot. Haruhi considered questioning how exactly they had got there when Mori had stated he would let her live in his house only five minutes ago but she wasn't really in the mood so just accepted rich people could make anything happen and clambered into the back seat.

'How far?' Haruhi mumbled tiredly.

'Twenty minutes,' Mori answered, Haruhi nodded her thank then conversation ceased. Haruhi closed her eyes and tried to relax her tense muscles she silently played through some memories from when her mother and father were both alive, she felt slightly guilty when she realised how distant her own parent's seemed. She leant her head back and tried to concentrate more on their faces, their smiles, their personalities.

~.~.~.~

Mori hardly felt the delicate thud and Haruhi's head dropped onto his shoulder. He looked down carefully at her face, careful not to move to suddenly. Her eyes were closed and her long lashes were nearly brushing her flushed cheeks, her lashes were also sticky with drying tears. Her lips were slightly parted and her breathing was deep and even. She moved every so often in her sleep and a distressed expression would come to her face before disappearing again and changing back to her relaxed sleeping face.

Mori just sat still and stared out of the window. The silence didn't bother him this time; he listened to her rhythmic breathing. The car jolted and Haruhi's head fell into his lap, he didn't jump, instead he stroked her hair gently, brushing it away from her eyes and releasing the tropical scent of her shampoo around the car. Haruhi's eyes fluttered open for a moment and she smiled, snuggling into his hand and drifting back to sleep.

**Has anyone realised everyone thinks Haruhi uses strawberry shampoo just because she likes strawberries? I wrote strawberry initially but decided to be different :D**

**It turns out it will take a while before anyone comes to fix my laptop, oh stupid me to think the computer shop would do it there and then. Well, we'll wait and see whether anyone is ever going to fix it *Sigh* the fuse in my laptop charger has also bust so am in a depressed mood right now. Sorry for also writing another short chapter *dies* but I'm excited because I know one thing I'm going to make happen in the next chapter. How can I get excited by something I thought up myself?! It's not like I can surprise myself 3**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi again everyone :) I hope you've all been good since I last update. I'm literally snowed under with homework right now and should be doing English instead of writing fanfics but I was bored ^^;**

Haruhi felt the car stop moving and frowned, she didn't want to get up. It was too comfortable and she felt safe. She felt a pat on her shoulder and she turned to look at her senpai who was staring down at her, his expression impossible to read.

_I'm lying on his lap! _Her mind suddenly screamed and she bolted upright, 'I'm sorry, I didn't realise...' actually, that was a lie. She did realise but was too tired and didn't really care. Mori just smiled gently and shook his head reassuringly.

'Master Takashi?' a young maid tapped on the tinted window. Mori opened the door and stepped out then put a hand out to help Haruhi. If it were one Hikaru or Tamaki she wouldn't have accepted the offered hand, she'd see it as patronising. But, of course she knew that was not Mori's nature. The maid girl blinked at her, 'Master Takashi, is your father expecting this young girl um... Miss...?' she looked at Haruhi expectantly.

'Just call me Haruhi,' the maid nodded and smiled.

'Is your father expecting Miss Haruhi?' she addressed Mori again. He simply nodded then took Haruhi's hand again and led her through the front door of his house. Haruhi wasn't exactly in awe of his house/mansion but she appreciated and liked its simple beauty a lot more than any of the other host's houses. It was still ridiculously huge, but not ridiculously fancy. Haruhi peered into some of the open doorways as they passed. The general theme was crisp white a deep cherry wood and there were black and white vases filled with blossom in every room. Even though every room was the same they were also distinct in some way, one room had a huge painting on the wall of a single white lily, Haruhi stopped for less than a second just to look at his before hurrying so as not to fall behind (as fast as you can go on crutches anyway).

Soon Mori went into one of the rooms, the walls were made from two blocks of colour, white on the bottom third and the top two thirds were a dark blue, almost navy. The bed was the same and the carpet was a beige/ochre colour. There was a desk with a rather large pile of school books in one corner and on the wall were a couple of martial arts and kendo posters plus some awards and certificates.

'Is this your room?' Haruhi wandered cautiously into the room, Mori stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.

'Yeah,' Haruhi just nodded mutely in reply and hovered by the window looking onto a vast expanse of grass and flowers, was it a garden or a field? Haruhi couldn't decide. Mori walked over to the doorway then turned around again, 'I have to talk to my father.'

'I'll be ok by myself. I'm guessing by the noise in the room opposite,' Haruhi pointed to the room that extremely loud music was pouring from, 'that your brother is just there if I need anything,' Mori nodded then went to the tea room, guessing that's where his mother would be and it would probably be a good idea to get her on his side before he spoke to his father about acquiring another person to the household. Nobody said it out loud but his mother had Akira Morinozuka wrapped around her little finger.

~.~.~.~

Haruhi stood in the middle of Mori's spacious room, unsure what to do with herself. She swayed gently to the beat of Satoshi's music that was vibrating through the wall, her eyes idly travelled around the room, acknowledging the unnatural tidiness of it. Was it Mori who was tidy? Or did maids do all of the cleaning. Haruhi noticed the large number of pictures scattered around the room. She picked up the closest one which was sitting on his desk. No big surprise, it was Huni eating cake. The next one was of the entire host club minus herself so it was probably taken a couple of years ago, they were dressed as, well, Haruhi wasn't really too sure but it looked like animals of some form. Mori had written across the top 'most stupid cosplay ever' Haruhi stifled a small giggle. There was another of the host club in normal uniform without her again; the twins were in middle school uniforms. There was a small photo in the corner of her; this one was labelled 'the host club family'.

There were numerous other photos scattered around the room of his family, the host club, Huni. Haruhi rubbed her eyes tiredly. It had been about half an hour since Mori had gone to speak with his father. Haruhi couldn't get her brain to feel worried or guilty for causing so much hassle. There was just one message going through her mind.

_Sleep. No. Sleep. Can't. Sleep. NO! SLEEP! CAN'T!_

She picked up one more photos to try and keep her brain occupied and sat down on Mori's desk chair. Huni was holding the camera out in front of them, a big cheesy smiled on his face. Haruhi was on one side of him a surprised but happy expression on her face and Mori on the other he was looking at something and smiling in is Mori way.

_What is he looking at...? ME?! No, I'm too tired... sleep._

Haruhi curled up on the comfortable chair, her arms wrapped instinctively around the photo then she closed her eyes.

~.~.~.~

Mori had finished explaining to his mother and shuffled uncomfortably as she eyed him for a few moments the she smiled and laughed lightly. She put a hand on his shoulder and looked up at him.

'How could I not take her under my wing, after all she's been through,' then she squealed, 'and I'd love to have a daughter. Oh, not that I don't love you and your brother, of course,' Mori smiled at his mother's almost split personality. She could change from one of the calmest and level headed woman he knew (bar Haruhi) to a giggly schoolgirl, 'you should go check on her now, Haruhi isn't it? I'll deal with your father. He's in a good mood so it shouldn't be too hard.'

As he made his way back to see how Haruhi was he met Satoshi creeping out of his room, his younger brother saw him and pressed a finger to his lips, 'She's asleep,' Mori stood with a blank expression and just stared at his brother. Waiting for an explanation, 'I was in your room because I heard you go into your room with someone so I went to see who it was. Now will you tell me who the girl is sitting in your bedroom?'

'She'll be staying here,'

'Uh... why?'

'Her father died so she has nowhere,'

'_And _her mom must have died too?' Satoshi's eyes widened in sympathy, Mori nodded, 'is she the one whose court case you went to as well?' another nod, 'man, that's a shitty start to life,' Satoshi shook his head in wonder and retreated to his room. Mori finally managed to slip in to his own.

Haruhi was indeed asleep. Satoshi had placed a blanket around her shoulders so only her head poked out, her headband was discarded on the floor and her hair was a messy shamble. It looked cute though. Her eyelashes were still sticky with tears and she looked peaceful but new tears were spilling down her face. Mori reached his hand out to wipe them away. When his had gently brushed her cheek Haruhi's eyes opened a fraction.

'Mori-senpai?' Haruhi sat up and rubbed her eyes blearily.

'Takashi,'

'Hm?'

'If you're living here you should call me Takashi,'

'Sure,' Haruhi smiled, 'oh, I hope you don't mind but I like the photo's you've taken. I must've fell asleep before I put this one back,' Haruhi stood up and places the Karuizawa photo back on his bedside table. Her gaze lingered on it for a few moments then turned back to Mori and fixed his eyes in her chocolate-eyed stare.

'Come,' Mori grasped her small hand and led her from the room back down the corridor. He likes having lots of excuses to hold her hand. That way she could like her without her knowing. He ushered her into an empty room. Haruhi gasped and walked towards the lily painting she had seen earlier. It was her mom and dad's favourite flower.

'Your room,' the tall boy told her.

'My room,' Haruhi repeated dumbly. _No, it can't be. It's the size of the whole of my old apartment. My bags are here so it must be though, _Haruhi floated around the room, absorbing her new surroundings, greedily devouring all of the new information. She stopped suddenly, remembering something. She unzipped the front of her bag and took a photo frame out. It was a picture of her mother and father on their wedding day. She placed it on her bedside table.

'Perfect,' Haruhi smiled then stifled a yawn.

'Sleep,' Mori nudged her towards the bed covered in crisp white linen.

'No, Takashi-senpai I can't. There's school in two days, I have to catch up, I have to-,'

'Sleep,' he chose to ignore the 'senpai' for now.

Haruhi mumbled something incomprehensible the stumbled and fell on the bed, dropping her crutches. She closed her eyes and sighed in contentment as the soft fabric. Mori pulled a blanket over her shoulders then left her to get some rest. He'd get some food put on her bedside table for if she got hungry later.

He got changed out of his tux in his room then sat in a chair and read, then he gave up because he couldn't concentrate. He looked at the picture Haruhi had been holding then lost himself in his thoughts. _Why was Haruhi crying in her sleep? Does she always do that? Is she ready to go back to school? Everyone knows she's a girl now, it was impossible to hide with the story in the news and everything about the court case._

'Takashi?' Haruhi was standing in front of him. He was about to lead her back to bed but she started talking again, 'I'm going to go back to sleep but I just wanted to thank you and apologise for being such a burden.'

'You're not a burden,' Mori blurted quickly.

'Well, um... and,' Haruhi leant forward and kissed him quickly, she was about to pull back when Mori didn't do anything, assuming she'd got the wrong idea but then he pulled her arm to bring her closer, it wasn't particularly intimate or long but it was enough to tell each other their feelings. When they pulled back they just looked each other in the eye for a few moments.

'Goodnight,' Haruhi whispered then floated back to her room, almost literally floating with a mixture of emotions, mostly good, but there was still the lingering thoughts of her father that wouldn't go away for a long time.

**Finally! I have completed the next chapter, had slight life crisis which still has to be fixed and could go either way so that delayed me a bit but I now have my laptop back safe and sound looking shiny and new :) Thank you for reading and please help me reach the 100 review goal in the next few chapters (there's no chance for just this one chapter)**

**I will be busy this weekend because I'm having a two month late sleepover for my birthday XD Then I'm going out somewhere with my best friend and the-guy-who-likes-me-and-my-best-friend-likes oh joy.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi guys sorry it has been a while, it's my sister's birthday, I went walking for twelve hours this weekend and to top it all off I have sprained my anatomical snuff box (wth?! Apparently is a bone thingy in between my thumb and wrist so it hurts to type ;_;)**

**Anyway, I'm sorry to hear some of you are going off this fic a bit. I will try my best to fix that if you give me ideas, I'm always happy to take criticism. I understand it is a bit unbelievable to think Haruhi has time for romance after her father just died but that will hopefully be cleaned up this chapter (there is a reason! Hint; look at Huni's thoughts)**

**BookWormie123 please don't go!**

When Mori woke up he immediately started his usual daily routine, shower, breakfast and kendo in the family dojo.

He was slicing at some straw dummies but stopped because he kept seeing Haruhi's father instead of an expressionless bag of straw. He sat on the wooden floor and closed his eyes, clearing his mind of all thoughts. He breathed in deeply and then exhaled. He could feel his muscles relax and release all of the tension that he didn't even know he had.

Although when meditating you are supposed to clear you mind of all thoughts, Mori found his mind drifting through recent events, His heart going through many different emotions as he thought back. He got to his most recent memory and heat flushed to his face. He remained still and calm with his eyes closed. His mouth twitched up slightly into a smile. The girl he was thinking about was probably still tucked up in her bed, sleeping away bad memories if that was possible. Hopefully they weren't all bad.

Mori finally gave up meditating and went to take another shower allowing himself a few more moments on silent happiness as the cold water trickled through his hair and down his face, clinging to his eyelashes and reluctantly splashing onto the white ceramic bottom of the shower.

He stepped out and wrapped a towel around his waist then he wandered down the hallway towards his bedroom. Haruhi's door was slightly ajar. Mori put his hand out to open it but remembered his manners and knocked gently.

No response.

Mori knocked a little harder.

Still no answer.

_She's probably still asleep._

Mori couldn't resist the chance to look at her sleeping face, it was probably one of the only times you couldn't see the sadness, even if it was well hidden he could see it in her eyes, skin, muscles ever her breathing. He pushed the door softly, letting it fall open by itself. The room was silent, Haruhi's sheets lay neat, the bed made up perfectly. No Haruhi. Mori's eyes widened a fraction and his heart leapt then settled again. She had probably just gone to get something to eat or maybe she was in the garden. Yes, that was it.

Mori continued to walk around the house at a relatively fast pace, he scared a few maids on the way, all of them youngish girls. It was probably due to his half-nakedness.

He flung open the last kitchen door open desperately, making the cook shriek in terror. No Haruhi.

_Where has she gone?! She's too weak to be wandering around by herself. What if her uncle finds her? What if I made him angry yesterday and he wants revenge? I'm sounding more like Tamaki every day. Must. Keep. Calm. _Mori went to the last person who could possibly know anything. After all, his room was right next to hers.

He pushed the door and it wacked violently against Satoshi's stack of CDs. His younger brother yelped and fell out of bed.

'Jeez, what the hell was that for?' Satoshi sat up and whined.

'Where's Haruhi?'

'Haruhi...? Oh, you mean her!' Satoshi nodded, 'nope sorry can't help you... she's missing?' Mori growled in frustration.

'Aren't you overreacting?' Satoshi had scrambled up onto his bed and rubbed his eyes sleepily.

Mori stared at his brother intensely.

'Right, I understand, her past blah blah blah, you better look for her. I bet she's fine though,' Satoshi shrugged the flopped down on his pillow. Mori ran out of the room, 'wait!' Mori turned back impatiently, 'put some clothes on before you go running around,' Mori nodded blankly while mentally kicking himself.

~.~.~.~

Mori dressed quickly then quickly left the house. He stood at the front gate and gazed at the empty road feeling a bit stupid. He had no idea where he was going but he had to do something so he jogged down the road past all of the houses on the next road along. He glanced quickly at each garden but he didn't think Haruhi would be one to trespass. He jogged steadily until he came to a bigger, more elaborate version of his house. Instead of ringing the doorbell like a normal person he did his usual and went around the back and climbed up through Huni's bedroom window. Surprise, surprise Huni was sitting at a small sofa eating cake, 'Takashi? What are you doing here?' Huni giggled, 'why is your shirt on backwards, silly?'

Mori hurriedly fixed his shirt while he explained, 'Haruhi's missing.'

'What? Haru-chan can't be gone,' Huni dumped his cake and automatically followed his cousin out of the bedroom window to search for him, 'shall I call Kyo-chan? He can call his police people.'

'Yeah,'

Huni, whilst dashing around the nearby areas in search of Haruhi, not only called Kyouya but, to Mori's unspoken annoyance, he also called Tamaki and the twins. Mori doubted they would be much help, more likely a bother.

At some point in their search of the entire city Kyouya, Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru met up with them, three of them in a complete state of panic. No prizes for guessing who.

'Kyo-chan where are your police peoples,' Huni asked as they looked in yet another coffee shop in the hope Haruhi would be in there.

'Oh please, I know where she is there is really no need for all of this hysteria, no offence Huni-senpai,'

'Where's Haru-chan!?' Huni looked up at Kyouya wide-eyed. Tamaki was shaking his friend by the shirt in desperation until Kyouya pinched him and left Tamaki whimpering but refusing to go to his corner of doom.

'The graveyard,'

'...'

'Her father was buried yesterday don't you think that is the most likely place for her to be?'

'Isn't that good Takashi?' Huni turned around to look at the blank space behind him.

'Mori-senpai left as soon as Kyouya mentioned the graveyard,' the twins pointed towards the open door their senior had just ran through, 'we'll need hurry up and meet them. Isn't the will being read soon?'

~.~.~.~

Haruhi turned around and blinked, dumbfounded and the sight of the boy running then collapsing to his knees on the grass in front of her.

'Takashi, what are you doing here? You look like you've run a marathon or something,'

_Something like that, _Mori thought and looked up into Haruhi's eyes, the skin between them creased slightly in either confusion or worry.

'I was worried,'

'Why? Is it because you couldn't find me? I _did_ leave a note on my bedside table,'

_..._

Mori put two arms over her shoulders and lean close to her face. He just looked at her for a few moments, then he heard the unmistakeable sound of footsteps, he sat back just as the host club appeared around the corner.

'Congrats Mori-senpai, you found her,' the twins skipped up and hugged their favourite toy until she pushed them both away.

'Seeing as we are all here I think it would be advisable to go to the will reading... unless you don't want us there Haruhi,' Kyouya raised his eyebrows towards the girl sitting on the grass. She was wearing a dress for a change; then again it was probably easier to wear a dress with the cast on her leg. It was a simple white cotton colour and she had a black cardigan that was hanging off her shoulders, I have a limo waiting,' he added and gestured to the sleek black car. A small crowd of wide-eyed people were gawking at it.

Haruhi shrugged indifferently and used her crutches to lever herself off the ground, holding both crutches in one hand, 'you guys can come, it's not like my dad had anything to give so it's going to be pretty boring and straightforward,' she grabbed Mori's hand like it was normal and walked towards the open door of the car. Mori followed passively behind, as if he wasn't happy at Haruhi's small gesture. Of course he was though. His cousin could see it.

_I hope Haru-chan actually likes Takashi like he does back. If it's just her love for her father being placed on someone else while she grieves... I don't even wanna think about it..._

_I see Mori-senpai has confessed his love to Haruhi in some shape or form, this is an interesting development._

_Why is Haruhi holding Mori-senpai's hand?! Daddy likes Haruhi more than him! I'm confused..._

_What is going on?_

Haruhi didn't notice anyone staring at the two linked hands, if she did, she probably didn't care.

~.~.~.~

'Seeing as the only two living relatives of the deceased are present I think we are ready to begin,' an aging man who strongly resembled a bloodhound boomed in a voice which definitely did not suit his appearance.

He unfolded a piece of paper and cleared his throat whilst Mori glared at Karasuma Fujioka from across the room, Kyouya scribbled in his notebook, Huni chomped on an icing covered bun and Tamaki watched the twins play on their Nintendo DS.

'Uh... this has to be one of the shortest wills I have seen in a while, it says all house belongings are to be kept or sold at Haruhi Fujioka's will and the apartment to be sold. I believe that has already been taken care of,' the man paused for a moment and read the same line over and over again, and in the deceased's exact words 'for when you are eighteen, my dear daughter here is your eight million yen,'

Haruhi nearly fell of her chair.

'What?!' Haruhi gasped.

The hosts merely looked up, 'I suppose that is a lot for a commoner,' Hikaru shrugged.

'Is it just a coincidence that is how much that vase was worth that you broke last year?' his duplicate pondered.

Haruhi ignored them, 'no, no, that can't be right. My father didn't even own that much,' she reasoned weakly, 'can I see that please?' she reached out a shaky hand for the piece of paper she thought was filled with lies. She shook her head as the truth stared stubbornly at her from the page, 'he always said he was going to find money to sent me to university, I thought he was joking.'

'Isn't this wonderful my darling niece?' Haruhi's uncle appeared beside her, all smiles. Mori was soon standing in front of the young girl. Who was looking a bit disorientated, 'what? She is _my_ relative. Not yours,' Mori moved away slightly but kept alert in case Haruhi's violent uncle tried to do anything.

'You slapped her across the face yesterday, what a great relative you are,' Hikaru pointed out sarcastically. The bloodhound man shuffled away, not wanting to get caught up in any messy business.

'A relative all the same,' Karasuma kept smiling, 'and I do believe she is in my custody so if you please I shall take her home now. Won't I dear?' He placed a hand firmly on Haruhi's arm; she flinched away from him into Mori's chest.

'That may be true but yesterday you were far too drunk to take care of her, I will have some of my personal doctors check your health and mental state before we are sure our dear Haruhi will be safe in your care,' Kyouya snapped his notebook shut and pushed his glasses coolly up the bridge of his nose. Karasuma opened and closed his mouth like a fish, unsure whether to believe a teenager could actually do that sort of thing or not. Kyouya sighed in irritation when his comment was met by silence, 'guards, please escort this man out.'

Guards appeared from nowhere and dragged Karasuma from the room, Haruhi watched him go.

'Greedy bastard,' she mumbled quietly.

'You got that right,' the twins nodded in agreement, 'couldn't have said it better ourselves.'

'I think my doctors will be able to keep him busy for a few days, in the mean time I will see if I can get Mori-senpai's parents to sign an agreement to taking you under their care. Judging by your uncle's violent behaviour yesterday I may be able to pull a few strings and remove you from his custody,' Kyouya was already punching a number into his cell phone, 'you should get some rest as well Haruhi, school starts tomorrow. Your new uniform will be waiting for you.'

'Can't I wear my old one?'

'No... You're wearing the girl's uniform from now on. Isn't that wonderful my darling daughter?'

'Say what?'

**YAY! I finished this chapter ^^ Sorry if it's not too great. There should be some more action soon... I hope. Thank you for reading :) Have a good week everybody.**

**Please help me reach the 100 reviews target, only nine more to go! I'm so excited :D**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hi everybody! How long has it been? 20 days? My bad... but I'm here now and extremely happy that you all helped me reach the 100 reviews mark, I'm overjoyed. THAK YOU EVERBODY!**

Haruhi looked at the yellow dress hanging in her wardrobe with unmasked disgust.

It was early morning, thankfully early enough that she didn't have to wear the monstrosity of a dress for at least another hour. As she had done the day before, she used the spare time to visit her parents' graves. She bought another bunch of flowers on her way and placed them on her father's grave.

She hugged her knees and watched the gravestone, shivering underneath the thin fabric of her t-shirt and skirt, silently cursing the fact she couldn't wear trousers for at least another three weeks, unless they were really loose. Her lip trembled and she sobbed, but refused to let tears fall down her face.

'I miss you, mom, dad,' she ran her hand over their names that were etched onto the stones. She closed her eyes and remembered their faces; her mother's although she hadn't seen for over ten years was as clear as day, much to Haruhi's joy. Haruhi checked her watch, which had coincidentally been her mother's. She sighed and rubbed her eyes then got heavily to her feet and trudged back to the Morinozuka household to put on her 'wonderful' new uniform.

~.~.~.~

The soft fabric slipped easily over her skin, she had to admit the dress was comfortable. Not very practical, but it was definitely comfy. Haruhi stroked the sunflower coloured sleeve with a thoughtful frown on her face, she stood up shakily and grabbed her books from the desk and shoved them in her bag. She slung it over her shoulder and nearly fell over at the imbalance of weight. She grabbed her crutches and struggled out of the room.

Mori's mother walked past her in the hall then turned back and smiled at her, 'would you like some help?'

'No, no, thank you but I think I can manage,' Haruhi determined expression made Mrs. Morinozuka want to laugh.

'Would you like some breakfast before you go? You can have a lift with Takashi to school. Take it easy on your first day,' she ushered Haruhi into the dining room before she could object. Haruhi sat down at one of the chairs and picked a piece of toast up from a china plate and nibbled on it nervously. Mori's mother sat opposite her sipping from a teacup.

Mori himself walked in a few moments later, his hair even more unruly than usual. He caught Haruhi's eye end smiled gently and reassuringly. Haruhi grinned back then proceeded to chew on the minute piece of toast in her mouth. She placed the slice of toast down and picked up a cup of tea that had been placed in front of her. She drank it slowly and watched quietly as the rest of Mori's family walked in. Satoshi gave her a big grin and patted her head as he passed. Akira Morinozuka gave her a curt nod and a small smile.

_Like father, like son, _Haruhi thought. She looked between Mori and his father. They had exactly the same mannerisms and looked relatively similar although Mori had some attributes of his mother as well.

She was happy in her own little world, comparing the different family members, chewing on another tiny piece of toast.

'Takashi-sama, Satoshi-sama, Fujioka-sama,' the car is ready to bring you to school,' a maid, the same Haruhi had seen when she first came to live with the Morinozuka's, bowed then retreated from the room once more.

In response Satoshi shoved the rest of the toast in his mouth and pulled his bag onto his shoulder and ran from the room, Mori stood up with his bag and hovered around as Haruhi picked up her bag and crutches. She hobbled towards him and they followed Satoshi. Mori pulled Haruhi's bag gently from her shoulder and onto his own.

'Takashi!' Haruhi whined and put a hand out to take it back.

Mori grinned and shook his head. Haruhi huffed and followed him, still trying in vain to take her bag back.

Akira blinked in vague surprise.

'I told you they were close,' Mori's mother (I'm going to call her Sumi which means elegant or clear ^^)

'She is a strong young woman,' Akira nodded in approval. Sumi laughed lightly, relieved Akira was pleased, it was hard not to be with a girl like Haruhi though.

~.~.~.~

After a relatively relaxed and quiet car journey Haruhi was having a not so relaxing walk up the front drive to the school, people were staring at her. No surprise there. And the twins were on either side of her, giving the curious school students death glares.

Haruhi barely noticed all of the attention she was getting, she was tugging at the pink ribbon on the collar of the uniform, 'can you explain again _why _I have to change uniforms?'

'First off, the dress is easier for you to wear with that huge hulking cast on your leg,' Hikaru pointed to the large white cast encasing her left leg.

'And second,' Kaoru motioned to the people staring, 'everyone saw you on TV. or in the newspapers. Everyone knows you're a girl but Kyouya decided having a female host would benefit the host club.'

'We're glad you have the money now to attend Ouran University, we didn't even know they didn't have scholarships for the university,' the both grinned like Cheshire cats.

'Yeah well, you wouldn't need to know because you're rich,' Haruhi rolled her eyes, 'besides, if my uncle gets hold of the money there's no chance of me getting any of it,' Haruhi looked downcast again, 'it's annoying my dad worked so hard to earn that money and it's going to go to a man that didn't even want to go to his brother's funeral.'

'Hey,' the twins patted her on the shoulders, 'Kyouya will sort it all out.'

'I can't rely on Kyouya for everything,'

'You don't think I'm competent enough, Haruhi?' Kyouya and Tamaki had joined them.

'You know that's not what I think, anyway, I'm going to see sensei before class starts, see you guys later,' Haruhi turned down a different corridor leaving the boys behind her.

'Is Haruhi going to be ok?' Tamaki's lower lip wobbled. He hadn't had the chance to give her a good morning hug.

'You underestimate her, Haruhi is strong. Give her some time to adjust,' Kyouya dragged his friend to their own classroom before the blonde idiot had a chance to follow Haruhi. The twins went to their class, alone.

When Haruhi arrived in the classroom about ten minutes later, she was first met my dozens of stares, all with different expressions. She walked towards her desk, eyes staring ahead, ignoring them all. She sat down at her desk and started to copy up the first piece of work she had missed.

The first girl shuffled up to her nervously and cleared her throat, Haruhi peered up and smiled her natural smile. Although the girl knew Haruhi's true gender she still blushed, 'now that I know you're a girl c-can I call you Haruhi-chan?'

'Uh... sure,' Haruhi was surprised how easy that had been. Was that the only question there was?

Once the first girl had plucked up the courage, others soon followed and as more and more people started to crowd her and the bolder their questions got. The twins tried to push back the crowd but failed epically.

One even got excited enough to ask, 'did Hokari from class 3C really rape you?'

'That is _enough_!' The teacher stood in the doorway, her eyes showed her fury, 'all of you get into your seats now and leave Fujioka-san _alone_, where are your manners?' she slammed her books onto the desktop and stood patiently for the class to be seated.

Haruhi hung her head down, she squeezed her eyes closed and tried not to let memories get the better of her, the teacher came to her name in the register, 'Fujioka-san, are you alright,' her head snapped up and she plastered a fake smile on her face.

'I'm fine sensei,' _I'm tired and the day hasn't even started. _Haruhi decided she would go and talk to her parents during lunch break.

~.~.~.~ Lunch break dop de doo ~.~.~.~

Finally, after a long few hours of having people's eyes bore into the back of her head no matter what their sensei said, the lunch bell rang.

Before any more questions could be asked, Haruhi rushed from the classroom, leaving her bag behind, she wouldn't need it.

She reached the graveyard about fifteen minutes later. She was breathing heavily from the effort and lay down on the grass in front of Kotoko and Ryoji's graves. She closed her eyes and breathed in the earthy scent of grass. Her breathing slowed and she fell asleep on the cool blanket of grass.

**Finished! I hope it was ok, bit boring I think but the next chapter should be better, promise! **


	19. Chapter 19

**Uh... it's been a while but my laptop got confiscated for a week then when I did write the chapter I didn't like it so did it again, hopefully is isn't to full of cra... I mean poo ^^ ZOMG IZ NEARLY XMAS loL!!!!1!!11! *No0b***

**Here is chapter 19**

'Hey,' the twins sat down at one of the tables in the lunch hall, 'where's Haruhi?'

'You are the ones in her class, how would we know?' Kyouya pointed out, not looking up from his laptop. He was typing with one hand and eating with the other.

'We thought you knew _everything _Kyouya-senpai,' they raised their eyebrows.

Kyouya's eye almost visibly twitched.

'What are we talking about?' Tamaki asked, taking his seat at the head of the table, 'and where's Haruhi?'

'Dunno,'

'You've lost my daughter!?' Tamaki shrieked and a few people walking past gave him weird looks, not that he noticed.

'I said you should give her some space, Tamaki. She probably wants to be alone, I think that considering her situation we should try to understand that,' Kyouya gave up on his laptop and picked at his food with a bored expression.

'Your being surprisingly kind today, senpai,' Kaoru noted.

'None of you were with her when she saw her father brain dead,' Kyouya said flatly. Nobody had a reply.

Hikaru shifted uncomfortable in the depressing atmosphere, 'maybe Mori-senpai knows where she is, they're living in the same house.'

Tamaki automatically abandoned his food and struck a dramatic pose, 'alright men, to the university!" the twins willing followed, Kyouya strolled behind muttering about how 'that moron' never listens to him and why are they friends.

~.~.~.~

'You can't find Haru-chan?' Huni asked through a mouthful of cake. A worried frown found its way to his face.

'We were hoping you guys would have an idea where she might be,' the twins said.

'I don't know, do you Takashi,' Huni looked to his taller cousin. Mori looked thoughtful.

'Graveyard,'

'That sounds likely,' Kyouya said, walking through the door of Huni and Mori's homeroom, 'I told you idiots she wants some time alone, she'll probably be back by the end of lunch. Sorry to bother you, senpais.'

'No problem, I miss seeing you guys at lunch, it's lonely over here, isn't it Takashi?'

'Yeah,' Mori replied absently, he was trying not to worry.

_Should Haruhi really be by herself? It's a long way from the High School to the graveyard. I have a free period after lunch. I'll just go to the high school and check she made it back ok._

Mori was so deep in thought he hadn't noticed that the four high school boys had already left.

~.~.~.~

Haruhi woke up slowly; she nuzzled her face into the soft pillow, willing herself to stay asleep.

_Pillow? _Her eyes opened immediately.

She sat up in the bed she was in and looked around the room. The walls were a pale cream and the floor had bare wooden boards, sanded to make it smooth. The furniture consisted of an empty desk, a dressing table/chest of drawers and the bed she was sitting in.

The door opened and her uncle came in carrying a tray of soup.

Haruhi narrowed her eyes, 'where am I? I need to get back to school,' she sat up put her uncle pushed her gently back down.

'This is your new bedroom and you're far too tired to go to school now. Besides, you're not going to that school any more, those boys are a bad influence, I called the headmaster.'

'What? I worked hard to get into that school and those boys are my friends,' Haruhi stood up unsteadily and looked for her crutches so she could leave, 'give me my crutches.'

'No, you are not to disobey me so you will stay here and do as I say,' Karasuma hissed.

'You can't make me,' Haruhi hissed back and stood up, she walked awkwardly on her cast and opened the door.

'I am your guardian,'

'Not for long. I think you've forgotten how old I am,'

'What difference does it make?'

'I can choose my guardian, I checked with Kyouya-senpai. He's already helping me work on the paperwork,' _I didn't say anything earlier because I knew you would find out then do something rash and idiotic, doesn't look like you needed any help anyways._

Karasuma made a kind of whimper of frustration. Haruhi just sighed and opened the door, her uncle tapped her shoulder and Haruhi turned quickly.

'What do you want?' she snapped. Her uncle hesitated for a moment then picked up the steaming bowl of soup and threw it in her face. The heat seared through Haruhi's skin and she shrieked in surprise and pain, she stumbled and fell to her knees, trying desperately to wipe the boiling liquid from her face.

~.~.~.~

Mori had already checked Haruhi's classroom and almost freaked when she wasn't there. He had gone outside out search to school grounds while the twins went to tell Kyouya, Tamaki and Huni. He had scanned the whole grounds by the time they appeared when he met them by the front gates.

'My father spoke to a coupleof minutes ago, somebody has withdrawn Haruhi from the school... is that Harfuhi's uncle in that car,' Tamaki looked over Mori's shoulder at a passing car, the other hosts' eye followed.

'Isn't that Haruhi sleeping in the back?'

Mori freaked this time.

Before anyone could object, he chased after the car. The other hosts just looked at him in disbelieve. Kyouya cleared his throat and gestured to a nearby car (not a limo, not very inconspicuous), 'leave Mori-senpai to his momentary lapse in sanity. We shall follow the car by more reasonable means.'

~.~.~.~

Mori, despite the laws of physics and nature, managed to catch up with the car enough to see Haruhi's head bob as the car went over every tiny bump in the road. He slowed down to a jog as the car began to slow, he stopped dodging between trees and across roads and settled behind a bush opposite from the, now stationary, car.

Karasuma was carrying Haruhi to the house, he wasn't being rough but he didn't look affectionate either. Haruhi hung limply, head and arms draped over his back as he carried her, sleeping, into the house.

Haruhi's uncle's house was a good size; two floors plus what looked like a wide attic room. The windows were large and light looking and the front drive had pristine green grass.

Mori sat in the grass across the streey, eyes locked on the house for a couple of minutes until he saw the car with the other hosts pull up just down the road. When the others started walking towards him he pointed to the house.

'So Karasuma has kidnapped Haru-chan?'Huni whispered, his eyes tearful. Mori nodded.

'It's hardly kidnap, Karasuma is her legal guardian for now, although, I am working on that,' Kyouya leant against a tree and his glasses glinted.

'I don't think Karasuma should be Haru-chan's guardian at all, he's a complete bastard,' Huni stated sweetly. Everybody looked at him.

'Mitsukuni, where did you learn that word?'

'I'm nineteen,'

'Enough said,' the twins finished. Then they waited.

And waited.

And fidgeted.

'What are they doing,' Tamaki whined, 'I want to rescue my daughter,'

'For all we know she could just be sleeping, Haruhi may not be in need of rescuing, I think we should go back to school until further notice. I don't like leaving her in the care of that man but if he doesn't do anything this is probably classed as stalking,' Kyouya closed his laptop and sat up from his position under a tree.

A shriek came from the direction of Karasuma's house.

'Tamaki, you have permission to rescue your daughter,' Kyouya said, both worried and a bit annoyed that Tamaki was right for once.

Mori had already knocked down the door by the time the others followed him, Huni caught up and they ran up the stairs. They saw a door, slightly ajar and pushed it open. Karasuma seemed to me trying to mop something from Haruhi's face, the skin around her eyes was a glaring red colour.

She looked up, tear falling from her bloodshot eyes.

'T-takashi?' she looked bewildered, 'he threw hot soup in my face.'

Karasuma shrank away, 'I didn't mean to! I'm trying to help her.'

Huni went up to him and raised his fist, Haruhi uncle back against the wall. Huni brought his had to Karasuma's neck and hit his nerve causing the man to lose consciousness. The small karate champion brushed his hands then turned to check on Haruhi but was stopped by the rest of the host club standing in the doorway, completely confused so he went to explain the situation to them.

Meanwhile, Mori was kneeling next to Haruhi gently wiping the rest of the cooling soup from her face; she looked at him with a frown and streaming eyes. He took a deep breath and gave her a small smile, 'I was worried,' he murmured.

'Takashi, I can hear you but I can't see you,' Haruhi squinted, 'I-I can't see,'

Mori looked up to Kyouya who had joined them. Kyouya bent down to Haruhi's level as well.

'Haruhi,' he started, his voice serious and thick with worry, he held up four fingers,' how many fingers am I holding up?'

'Uh... two?' there was silence, 'that was wrong wasn't it?'

'We need to get to the hospital,' Kyouya said.

Haruhi felt herself lifted into a warm embrace. Her eyes were open but all she could see was a murky cloud of colourful blobs.

**Wow, that sucked ;_; and it took me a whole two weeks to come up with this?! What is wrong with me? *basked head of pillow then falls asleep on it***

**Anyway, press the pretty green button and help me (eventually) reach 200 reviews (in my dreams)**

**Plus, there was an extra delay because wouldn't let me access my account :( what's been wrong with this website recently?! **


	20. Chapter 20

**Hello again, I've been neglecting fanfiction for a while because I'm addicted to Skip Beat but it'll take me a couple more days to get to the most recent chapter on mangafox so I hope I'll get back into the rhythm of writing chapters regularly, I'm hoping to have 10 different stories on fanfiction by the end of the year, two more to go and less than a month, what could go wrong? XD Anyway, since I have told myself I have read enough manga for today I shall start writing and hopefully it won't take me too long ^^**

Haruhi's head felt like fluff, she groaned as her mind swam back into consciousness. She didn't know how long she'd been out for, all she could remember was Mori holding her to his chest as they sat in the car on the way to the hospital; the comfort of his arms had been enough for the shock to wear off from Haruhi's system and the pain to take over.

Here it came again, the pain, in a wave heat and dryness.

Haruhi whimpered once and tried to wipe the unpleasantness from her face only to be met by thick gauze covering the top half of her face.

'Is she awake,' she heard a whisper, immediately recognising it as Kaoru.

'Haruhi, can you hear us?' Tamaki said softly, the panic obvious in his voice, 'say something.'

'Ouch,' Haruhi moaned, 'it's my eyes that are broken, not my brain,' she sat up and rubbed her sore head.

'Haru-chan!' she heard a squeal from Huni-senpai who seemed happy to see her conscious.

'Are you ok,' Hikaru pressed.

'Leave her be to collect her thoughts,' Haruhi felt thankful as Kyouya silenced everyone, 'I will go get the doctor. Now she's conscious we can run some proper tests to see what can be done about her sight.'

'I'm sitting right here, you can talk to me directly,' Haruhi frowned before realising it would have no effect. She could almost imagine herself sitting in the hospital bed like a china doll, emotionless and fragile but ignored the vision and placed the emotion in her words instead.

'I apologise,' Kyouya muttered then she heard the door open and close, signalling his exit.

'Are you scared Haru-chan?' Huni asked.

'Why should I be?'

'How are you going to recognise everything around you if you can't see any of it?' that was a very tearful Tamaki. Haruhi smiled.

'I can recognise all of you guys just fine by your voices,' she smiled, 'Huni-senpai,' she patted him on the head from his position sitting on the side of her bed, 'Hikaru and Kaoru,' she pointed at each individual to her right in turn, 'Tamaki-senpai,' she pointed to the right hand corner nearest to her, 'and Takashi,' she pointed to her left.

'But Mori-senpai didn't say anything... did you just call him Takashi?!' a mixture of voices said the same sentence but with different emotions, some confusion, some shock and some happy.

Haruhi smiled and tapped her lips, 'secret,' she laughed then the door opened and Kyouya walked in with the doctor.

They both looked slightly confused at the gaping mouths of the twins, Huni and Tamaki all looking at Haruhi who looked surprisingly happy considering her position.

'How are you feeling Miss Fujioka?' the doctor walked beside her.

'Apart from a headache and that fact I can't see much I'm good,' Haruhi smiled, still imagining everyone's faces along with their voices.

'I'm going to take the gauze off your eyes, now you are conscious we can see the full extent of the damage,' Haruhi felt cool fingers brush her face, both cooling and stinging the exposed raw skin, the padding over her eyes was slowly lifted, Haruhi blinked.

'What do you see?'

'Not much, blobs,' Haruhi shrugged, turning her head in different directions and squinted, 'I can see something but not enough to define real shapes,' she felt a light get flashed into her eyes and doctor held her face, inspecting her eyes quietly.

'It's good you can see something, you're cornea is quite badly damaged, about seventy percent I would say, but it is the fastest healing tissue in the body so with some eye drops and TLC I'm very hopeful that you'll regain your previous sight, so long as that damage isn't irreversible. There is a possibility of that but I 'm almost sure you'll be fine,' there were sighs of relief from around the room, 'I'd like to keep you here overnight for observation but then you should be fine, you can go to school if you think you can manage, if someone takes note for you maybe?' Haruhi breathed a sigh of relief; she felt that she had missed enough school as it was.

The doctor then went onto explain medication and made her lie down with a cool gel pack over her eyes. The doctor finally left after over half an hour.

'Isn't this great Haruhi?!' Tamaki squealed, finally able to release all of his energy after behaving himself for an impossible amount of time. There was silence on the receiving end, 'are you ignoring me Haruhi?' Tamaki seemed to shrink in size and his lower lip trembled.

'Haru-hi,' the twins poked her cheeks, still no response.

'She's sleeping,' Mori muttered from his corner.

'Yeah, leave Haru-chan to rest,' Huni hopped down from the side of her bed to Mori's side.

'From now on, now that we know she is going to be fine, we can take the evening in shifts to look after her, I'm assuming you don't want to leave her by herself,' he received a lot of shakes of heads for that, 'good, I have a rota made up. I'll sit with her now,' _while she is likely to stay asleep but is at her most fragile after being given antibiotics, '_Tamaki after an hour and a half,' _otherwise he would lose his patients, _'then the twins, Huni-senpai afterwards and last, Mori senpai, you can keep her company overnight,' Kyouya held up the rota which he placed on the table then pushed everyone out of the door, 'go back to school and come back later.'

It happened so fast they only had time to blink before everyone found themselves standing in the hospital hallway, they slowly dispersed, still not too sure what information Kyouya had forcefully pushed into their heads at a speed that made it difficult to comprehend.

Back in the hospital room Kyouya was happily setting up his laptop to finalise some of the paperwork for change in custody, it only needed Haruhi's signature, her new legal guardian(s) signatures and give it to Haruhi's social worker.

Haruhi stirred, 'I thought Tamaki-senpai would never shut up,' she groaned.

'There's only-,'

'I know it's only you, Kyouya-senpai, you can keep working if you want, I'm going to go back to sleep,' then she turned onto her side and curled up, Kyouya allowed himself a lingering moment to look at her sleeping face before his eyes flicked to the computer screen and he immersed himself in work.

~.~.~.~

Haruhi slept through Tamaki's hour and a half, he was happy enough just to stare at her face and live in his weird fantasy world.

She slept through the twin's hour and a half, they thoroughly enjoyed doodling all over her arms until Huni caught them then helped them wash it all off again until Haruhi woke up.

'What are you three doing?' she rubbed her eyes then flinched and quickly moved her hands away from her face.

'Hika-chan and Kao-chan drew on your arms,' Huni informed her matter-of-factly.

'I see,' Haruhi said with an air of annoyance, 'well I'm sure Hika-chan and Kao-chan won't mind leaving now will they?' her voice dripped with fake pleasantness.

'Yes Ma'am,' the twins said with identical sarcasm then they left, laughing, Haruhi grinned and shook her head.

'So... Haru-chan,' Huni rocked on his feet, faking innocence.

'Mm?' Haruhi turned her attention to him.

'You and Takashi,'

'I guess so, well, I think so but you'll have to ask him too,'

'Oh, there's no need for me to ask him, yay~,' Haruhi found herself enveloped in a warm hug, 'be nice to him, kay? He may be smart but he can be kinda stupid sometimes too, a bit like Tama-chan put on mute.'

'Interesting way of putting it Huni-senpai,' Haruhi laughed.

Haruhi and Huni chatted for a bit longer then a nurse came in about half an hour before Mori was due to come and watch her and gave her some pain relief and her medication. Haruhi's head went woozy then she fell asleep on Huni's shoulder, he swung in legs back and forth and hummed gently but cheerily to the sleeping girl.

**It took me a long time for a good(ish) reason. I was going to finish writing it on Friday but I wasn't feeling too great all day at school and when I got home all I was capable of was sleeping so I fell asleep and 5pm, I'm feeling better now though :)**

**Also, there is a poll on my profile to decide which story I am going to write next so please look at it and have a good week.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hello, Happy, err... Boxing Day? Wait that was yesterday... HAPPY WINTER (?!)**

**Here is the new chapter which I have been neglecting to write for awhile now (meaning a long, long, long, long, time) But here it is.**

Mori pushed the door open slowly and peered around. Huni was still happily swinging his legs with Haruhi's head dozing on his shoulder, 'Hi, Takashi,' Mori nodded his greeting the gently lower Haruhi from his cousin's shoulder and onto the bed. He tucked the blanket around her then let himself have a moment to gaze at her before he looked up to properly greet Huni, but realised the small boy was already halfway out the door.

'Mitsukuni,' he called. He was going to apologise if he appeared rude.

'I'll see you later Takashi,' Huni turned around and grinned, then went into the hallway, 'glad you finally had the courage to tell her how you feel.'

Mori wasn't sure whether responding to a kiss was the same as telling Haruhi but he didn't spend too long thinking about it, she sat down in a chair and pulled it closer to her bed.

~.~.~.~

_I opened my eyes, confused to find myself in my old apartment. _

_Not only was it strange for me to be there but it was also a shock I could see anything at all._

'_Haruhi~,' my heart leap, I could recognise that voice anywhere. I turned around and there was my father, as feminine as ever, I smiled and embraced him. _

_I knew it must be a dream but I could smell the rose and jasmine perfume he always wore._

_My father laughed, 'what's brought this on? I'm not going anywhere so no need to seem so desperate but I'm so happy you finally hug me voluntarily so I'm not complaining,'_

_I sighed, sinking in to his soft blouse. How wrong he was, he was already gone._

'_Oh,' he said, sounding surprised, I looked up at his face, squeaking and jumping back when I saw my father staring blankly back at her. He stumbled towards me; I backed up against the wall trying to get away from him. A knife was sticking through his stomach, pointing towards me. My dad fell to his knees, still staring at me, following my every movement._

_The knife in his stomach twisted sharply causing my father the gasp, blood spilt from both his mouth and the wound onto the floor, creeping towards me in a puddle._

_The person who held the knife laughed. I forgot everything else._

_The figure was encased in shadow; he stepped towards me, slow, steady, thudding footsteps._

_He leant towards me._

'_Boo,' Hokari whispered._

~.~.~.~

Mori woke up, the room was dark and Haruhi was sitting bolt upright in the bed, breathing quickly and unevenly, a mixture between sobbing and hyperventilating. He got up from his seat and wrapped an arm around her shaking form, he rocked her until she calmed down a bit.

'Sorry,' she whispered, 'I'm usually Ok but I guess bad memories from the hospital made my nightmare worse than usual,' she snuggled closer into Mori's chest, at least the clean scent of his shirt was real.

'You have them often?' Mori inquired, immediately feeling guilty for not noticing.

'Mm,' Haruhi nodded, feeling tired.

'Didn't you trust me enough to tell me?'

'You are the person I trust the most, you're the only person I have left to trust,' Haruhi reassured him, 'plus, I know Huni-senpai thinks I only love you because I am placing the feelings I had for my parents onto you and relying on you but I know that's not true. I like you more than any of the hosts before all this stuff happened, you always tried to help me and I don't think I would have been able to make it through all of this without you. I just took me a while to realise how much I appreciate and care for you.'

'...' Mori didn't really know what to say but he felt warm with happiness from her words. Haruhi took his silence as confusion. (A/N: because obviously he isn't silent very often *sarcasm*)

She sighed, 'what I'm saying is I really do trust and... Love you.'

Mori lifted her chin and kissed her, gently and it was over to quickly for Haruhi's liking.

'I love you,' Mori replied.

Haruhi felt her face go warm; she smiled then curled up into Mori's chest and fell into the first dreamless sleep she could remember. Mori joined her in sleep soon after.

Kyouya found them the next morning, Mori with one arm draped over Haruhi and her head resting on the other, she was curled up with as small smile on her face. Kyouya raised an eyebrow and suppressed a chucked. He cleared his throat. Mori's eyes flickered open and turned slowly in their sockets to look at him, he yelped silently and sat up straight, almost throwing himself off of the bed.

This time Kyouya couldn't contain himself, he chuckled quietly, 'it's a good thing I came first and not Tamaki or the twins,' Haruhi sat up and went to rub her eyes when she realised she couldn't.

'Ah, good morning Kyouya,' she stretched, 'I feel fine and my eyes don't hurt as much, can I leave yet? I hate hospitals and have spent **way **too much time in them recently.'

Both men, two men immune to expressing emotion, chuckled at her lack of embarrassment.

'I'll go check,' Kyouya left the two alone again, trying to battle the small grin from his face.

Silence followed, Haruhi giggled, she could _feel _the heat radiating from Mori's face,

'Jeez, you're acting like he caught you doing something immoral,' she laughed harder when the heat from his cheeks got warmer. He gently pushed a bag into her hands, obviously thinking she couldn't tell his emotions if she couldn't see, most people couldn't tell his feelings if they _could _see.

'Clothes,'

'Thanks, even if I have to stay in this damn hospital, I'm not sitting in this hospital gown all day, it itches like hell,'

'I'll leave,'

'Ok, if the twins come, make sure they don't come in to 'help' me,' Mori nodded (A/N: which Haruhi can't actually see...) and left, standing outside the closed door, he looked like a security guard... with a very crumpled shirt. Kyouya joined him.

'The doctor wasn't too happy but agreed to let Haruhi go home, to your house that is, the nurse is going to come change her dressing and give her some supplies, if that's you need I'm going to get some coffee, Haruhi better appreciate how early I got up for her,' (9am) Kyouya stalked off, obviously the coffee he had drank earlier had worn off.

Mori murmured his thanks before Kyouya disappeared.

'Takashi?' Haruhi's voice was muffled from behind the door.

'Mm?'

'I have a vest on but, ah, I can't work out the top, can you help me?'

'...'

'Please,'

'Ah,'

'Thanks,'

Mori slipped into the room, trying not to feel like a pedo, Haruhi was holding the top up to him, looking like a lost child. His mother had chosen her clothes, a plain white vest, a pair of white straight leg jeans and cute little yellow sandals with a pink flower on each. The top she was holding was off the shoulder, warm looking and soft turquoise in colour. He slipped it over her head and she popped her arms through the long sleeves the reached to the middle of her palm.

'I'm guessing your mom bought these,'

'Mm, she always wanted a daughter,'

'They're nice, well, they feel nice,' Haruhi grinned, she felt better after the first good night's sleep she had had since the start of that school year. It was like her brain had been cleaned and her thoughts were fresh and clear.

'The doctor said you can leave,'

'Great! I'd rather leave now before the morons get here, will Huni-senpai be at your house today?' (A/N: Is the weekend XP cos I say so) Haruhi helped Mori gather her possessions as best she could whilst chatting.

'Probably,' Mori finished placing her things in a bag and carried it in one hand, with the other; he gently lifted Haruhi onto his shoulders. Haruhi yelped, slightly scared as now she didn't have the floor to navigate, 'it's easier if I carry you.'

'Ok,' Haruhi calmed when she could place her hands on his head to balance.

He bent to make sure she didn't hit her head on the doorframe and met Kyouya outside of the door, sipping a cup of coffee tentatively.

'I've filled out the forms; you're ready to go,'

Both Mori and Haruhi nodded, Mori was ignoring the smirks Kyouya was flashing him. Haruhi heard the glass front doors of the hospital slide open and then a voice.

'HARUHI!' it sounded like a failed attempt to sound friendly, like the owner of the voice had their teeth gritted. Haruhi recognised the voice.

'What is he doing here?' Kyouya hissed, 'my police force will be punished for this slip.'

Mori slipped Haruhi from his shoulders to a safer position in the cradle of one arm.

'Leave Fujioka Karasuma,' he growled, shielding Haruhi protectively.

**Looked like it was going to be a nice fluffy chapter didn't it? Muahahaha :) **

**POLL poll POLL poll POLL *hint hint***

'

'

**\/**


	22. Chapter 22

**If this was real life, the story would be dull, so I think I might go over the top a bit in this chapter (but I will explain it :D)**

_Both Mori and Haruhi nodded, Mori was ignoring the smirks Kyouya was flashing him. Haruhi heard the glass front doors of the hospital slide open and then a voice._

'_HARUHI!' it sounded like a failed attempt to sound friendly, like the owner of the voice had their teeth gritted. Haruhi recognised the voice._

'_What is he doing here?' Kyouya hissed, 'my police force will be punished for this slip.'_

_Mori slipped Haruhi from his shoulders to a safer position in the cradle of one arm._

'_Leave Fujioka Karasuma,' he growled, shielding Haruhi protectively._

~.~.~.~

'I have come to retrieve my niece. I'm terribly sorry that I slipped and hurt you,'

'Why can't you just leave me alone?' Haruhi yelled fiercely, leaning in to Mori's protective embrace.

'Not only are you no longer Haruhi's legal guardian but you also have a restraining order so you can't be within twenty meters or Haruhi Fujioka,' Kyouya was already secretly calling the local police plus his private police.

'Oh? Well I need the money... I mean girl, she is my only living relative,' Karasuma sounded more desperate than lonely.

'Takashi, be careful. I think he's high,' Haruhi had seen enough drug addicts in alleyways by the supermarket to know what they sounded and acted like. Mori 'hmmed' in agreement, he could see Karasuma's hands shaking at his sides and his eyes were wider and less focused than usual. Mori froze when he saw Karasuma pull an object from his jacket pocket.

'What's wrong?' Haruhi whispered, uneasy at the sudden tense of the arm wrapped around her. A woman came through the door behind them and took one step onto the pavement and screamed running back into the hospital.

'Get Haruhi inside,' Mori muttered to Kyouya. Karasuma stifled a laugh.

'You need to get inside too, that gun is issued to all of the Otori private police, he must have stolen it,' Kyouya growled, it was the first time Haruhi had heard fear in his voice.

'Let go of the little girlie,'

Mori stood his ground, he could see the policemen sneaking up behind Haruhi's uncle. The gun clicked as he loaded the bullet.

'Or I'll have to make you,' Karasuma whispered. Haruhi's teeth chattered in fear.

'T-takashi, he's going to hurt you,' she tugged at his shirt, trying to move him in the direction of what were probably the hospital doors.

The two policemen grabbed Karasuma's arms and pulled his arms upwards, trying to stop him from shooting anybody. Karasuma yelped and pulled the trigger, the bullet ricocheted in a random direction. Haruhi felt wind ruffle the hair on top of her head and automatically pushed Mori away.

Haruhi still had the echoes of the gunshot reverberating in her ears, he head was ringing but she could still hear Mori's grunt in pain, turning towards the noise, dread filling her heart.

_Not again, don't leave me. Don't take everyone from me._

'Takashi!' Haruhi almost screamed, she didn't care that the police were taking her uncle away, hopefully for good this time.

'I'm ok,' he was speaking, in a strained voice, but he was speaking. Haruhi fell down to kneel beside him, placing her hands blindly in front of her she felt for Mori's shoulder, her fingers turned wet and she could smell the metallic scent of blood.

'I'm sorry, I've caused you so much trouble, too much trouble,' Mori sat up and patted her on the head with his good arm. Kyouya placed his hand on Haruhi's shoulder.

'It only grazed his shoulder because you moved him in time, the doctors will bandage his arm and he'll be fine,'

'Yeah,' Mori move his hand down to her cheek then stood up as two hysterical nurses ran towards him and dragged him away to get checked on.

'It's still my fault,' Haruhi was glad that the bandage was covering the guilt evident in her eyes.

'Haruhi, no matter what you say, and if you tell anyone I said this you will find yourself with an excessive amount of debt, everyone in the host club, and I'm sure some other people, would be lesser men if we didn't know you,' Kyouya admitted, giving Haruhi a hand off the floor, 'I hate to admit you taught me things I would never have known about the world.'

Haruhi remained silent, letting Kyouya's kind words sink in, still unsure of herself.

'We should go clean your hands,' Kyouya gently led Haruhi towards the bathroom near the hospital entrance. He turned on the tap and passed her the soap, allowing Haruhi to rub the drying layer of blood from her hands.

'Senpai,' Haruhi said in a pondering voice, 'you know you really should stop pretending to be a jerk, you're one of the nicest people I know... when you're not trying to drown me in debt, I mean.'

'I'll take that as a compliment,' Kyouya smirked.

'Are you smirking?' Haruhi turned around as Kyouya passed her a hand towel.

'No,'

'Liar,' Haruhi let a smirk of her own break across her face.

As they left the bathroom, Kyouya could see Mori being flanked by two nurses. He looked his usual self; a bandage was wrapped around his left arm just below the shoulder. His eyes bore no emotion until they spotted Haruhi then they softened slightly. Of course, she couldn't see him and had yet to recognise his presence. As he got closer Haruhi's head snapped around.

'Takashi, are you ok?' Haruhi's voice sound more normal than before, she knew that because his footsteps were normal he must be able to walk properly so hopefully the injury was minor.

'Yeah,' he patted her head again and Haruhi sighed happily.

'Sorry,' she said again, 'I cause too much trouble.'

'Worth it,' Mori insisted.

The nurse closest cleared her throat, 'there's a deep cut but that's very lucky for a gunshot wound. Mr. Morinozuka, if you change the dressing one every day or so for about two weeks then I'm sure you'll be fine. Miss. Fujioka, I have also been informed that you are allowed to remove your bandages and cast in two weeks also, come to the hospital then. Have a nice week.'

'Thank you,' Haruhi smiled an Mori bowed slightly then took Haruhi's hand and led her out of the door, Kyouya followed behind for a few moments before saying goodbye and trailing off to a waiting car, the scene outside had almost changed to normal already. Karasuma was nowhere to be seen.

~.~.~.~

'Haruhi imouto-chan!' Satoshi hugged her when she came through the door. Haruhi was confused by his sudden attitude. He had never been cold but now he was acting like they were childhood friends. Mori wasn't surprised; Satoshi had always warmed up to people quickly.

'Haruhi is older than you,' Mori pointed out. (Imouto is little sister)

'But she's so darn cute looking,' Satoshi whined then caught sight of the white bandage on his brother's arm, he stared at it for a couple of moments the stepped back a squealed, 'you're bandage buddies!'

Haruhi and Mori both shared the same thought.

_Uh..._

'Why do you have it anyway?' Satoshi suddenly appeared by Mori's arm and inspected the dressing, 'did you get it just to match Haruhi imouto-chan?' he waggled his eyebrows at his older brother who just stared back, trying not to act embarrassed. Haruhi didn't seem embarrassed she was too busy wondering why Satoshi addressed her as a sister and didn't bother with the formality for his real older brother.

'Shot,' Mori told him.

'You got shot?!' Satoshi freaked.

'It was my fault,' Haruhi sighed, having joined the conversation when Satoshi shrieked. Mori shook his head and made a disapproving sound.

'Well unless you were the one to shoot him I don't see how you could have much to do with this at all,' Satoshi patted her on the head, hoping the guilty expression on her face would disappear, 'and by the looks of how big brother's still using his arm it can't be that bad, ne?'

Haruhi shrugged and sighed once more, brushing Satoshi's hand from her head and walking slowly towards her room, her hand brushing the wall for guidance. Satoshi and Mori shared a look.

'Is she usually like this?' Satoshi asked.

Mori shook his head but gave a weak smile.

'I guess disasters change people, you should go try and fix her,' Satoshi pushed his brother in the direction Haruhi had left. Mori glanced back, thanks showing in his eyes, Satoshi had a mischievous glint in his eye, 'and if it comes to it, make sure you use protection, no more unexpected surprises are needed.'

Mori shot him a glare then carried on walking, his younger brother laughing almost evilly in the background. He walked into Haruhi's room to find the girl trailing her hands along the wall, muttering under her breath about a suitcase. She turned to face him when he stopped in the doorway.

'I can't remember the layout of this room and all I could find was a stupid window, stupid blindness. I'm like a freaking defenceless baby,' Haruhi sat on the floor and ran her hands through her hair. She heard Mori's footsteps then him kneeling down in front of her. She turned her head to where she thought his may be, 'maybe I should leave and live with Misuzu and Mei or something so you don't have to protect me and get hurt.'

'Want to,' Mori murmured, his voice closer than she expected.

'Why?' Haruhi managed to stutter, she could feel her face warming up then she felt ever warmer lips on hers. There was definitely no need for words there. It only lasted for a couple of seconds before he pulled back and Haruhi automatically missed the soft, safe feeling.

'I think I'll stay,' Haruhi muttered almost sleepily, 'if you want me to.'

Mori patted her on the head then took her hand and lead her out to the garden.

**FINALLY COMPLETE :D Only took me about a week of writing and editing and I'm still not happy with it but I guess it's ok :) There will only be a chapter or so more unless there is anything you readers desperately want to happy, just tell me ;) I have other story ideas in my head so there's no problem with new stories.**

**The gun scene was a bit stupid but oh well, have a nice week and I'll try to update soon.**


	23. Chapter 23

Haruhi was sitting in god knows what restaurant with the rest of the hosts chattering happily around her. She was happy too, sipping from her drink and listening with semi-interest to the conversations going on around her.

She wiggled her newly freed leg happily, it felt weird and airy, the skin being exposed and when she walked on it, it felt weak, but not painful.

It also meant she could wear trousers again. Haruhi admitted the odd dress or skirt was ok, it was almost summer after all. But trousers were comfortable, and she felt more protected and safe. Mori's hand was on top of hers, they were sitting on a long, silk cushioned bench, Honey was on one side of her, and Mori on the other, Kyouya was opposite, unfortunately between the twins and Tamaki. Haruhi didn't have to see him to know how annoyed he was with the three. Who were screaming a yelling as usual.

Haruhi sighed contentedly and Mori squeezed her hand worriedly,

'I'm fine,' Haruhi smiled up at him, 'is your arm ok?'

'Yeah,' his bandage had come off the same time as her cast, Haruhi had brushed her hands gently along where the wound had been, finding only a minor dent and scab, 'eyes?'

'They haven't hurt in days, I don't really see why I can't take the bandage off today but I guess one more day doesn't really make a difference.'

'Hey Haruhi, what do you want to eat?' Hikaru yelled across the table.

_Rich idiot and his unnecessary shouting,_ Haruhi shook her head inwardly, 'I don't mind, you can choose,' there was no point saying she couldn't afford anything because that would just trigger a Tamaki-rant about how he would do anything for his wonderful Haruhi.

She had noticed he didn't call himself her father or her his daughter any more, either he was being considerate as it might make Haruhi remember how own, dead father... or the more likely answer is Kyouya had told him to stop because of her feelings.

'When you have all ordered your food I can tell you everything I know about Karasuma Fujioka and how he appeared in front of the hospital the way he did,'

Haruhi's stomach did a funny twist at the sound of the man's name but she was glad she would finally understand what had happened.

It took another twenty minutes for everyone to calm down and order, the waiter was thoroughly confused by the time he left the table, Kyouya just passed him a slip of paper telling the poor man what everyone wanted.

'Right,' Kyouya started, the twins shut their mouths and sat down, 'this very moment Karasuma Fujioka is in rehabilitation and when he had completed his time there he is being moved to a different part of the country,' Haruhi let out a deep breath, horrible man number two, taken care of, 'the reasons he is in rehabilitation is for alcoholism, substance abuse and excessive gambling.'

'Wow,' Hikaru said, 'that's a lot of problems.'

'I swear not all 'commoner' families are as messed up as mine,' Haruhi knew they were now thinking normal people went around the streets smoking crack and throwing their money around.

'The day he appeared at the hospital, he was being held in a local police station, one of my private police was standing outside his door. Karasuma had not been searched properly before they put him in the cell so he was still in possession of drugs. Whilst on a high he took the gun out of the back pocket of my officer, hit him over the head with it then stole the keys and was out of the door before anyone had noticed. I assure you the officer who did the search and the officer outside the cell have both been fired,'

_That's a bit harsh _Haruhi thought to herself but didn't say anything. Although Kyouya had helped her a lot recently with his infinite resources and knowledge he blamed himself for being imperfect and making mistakes. It was actually quite comforting for Haruhi to know Kyouya was only human, the element of fear that seemed to linger in Haruhi's mind whenever she was around him had faded away to... unless the low-blood pressure demon awoke, _that _seemed to terrify everyone apart from Mori.

Haruhi smiled as her thoughts wandered aimlessly, the chatter around her relatively soothing and everything in her life seemed to be piecing together to be something resembling 'normal.'

The food came quickly and Haruhi picked her chopsticks up and ate normally, having adapted to eating blindly with ease. Apart from her even more clumsy than usual habit of tripping over everything and anything (including perfectly flat ground) Haruhi had adapted well, the school was rich enough to buy her a whole set of books in Braille as well as a laptop with a Braille keyboard so she had managed to just about keep up with work.

'How are your grades, Haruhi?' Kyouya was the first to strike up a real conversation with her since he short chat with Mori. Huni was currently explaining martial arts to the three idiots, using Mori to help demonstrate. Kyouya wasn't one for noisy people-yelling-over-the-top-of-each-other conversations.

'Fine, I've almost caught up with everything,' Haruhi popped another piece of sushi into her mouth and relaxed into the taste, glad she had let the hosts choose for her, it wasn't like she could really read the menu.

'Do Hikaru and Kaoru take notes for you at the moment?'

'Nope, the school have leant me a laptop and I'm using Braille,'

'You can read Braille?' Kyouya sounded genuinely surprised.

'It's not too hard. I knew a little from this workshop thing I did in middle school, it took me a few days to learn it properly but languages and stuff like that... I guess it easily,'

'I'm impressed,'

Haruhi just shrugged. She was surprised herself; Kyouya was rarely impressed considering he was so smart himself. She was stolen from her conversation by Tamaki practically screaming down her ear the importance of her learning martial arts.

'There's really no point in me learning martial arts,' Haruhi shook her head.

'Why not if it saves you from nasty people?' Tamaki was still shrieking, Haruhi guessed the other customers were giving him weird looks.

'I have Takashi,' Haruhi smiled; yes Mori was definitely the person she felt safe with. Said person's grip on her hand tightened slightly, she could feel his palm go warmer as his heart beat faster.

'What's that supposed to mean?!' Tamaki was still shrieking, as dense as ever.

Haruhi just laughed and ate some more tuna, counting down the hours in her head until she could take of the bandage and open her eyes.

~.~.~.~

That night Haruhi closed her eyes, confident that tomorrow was going to be a good day. She dreamt she had taken of the bandages and could things she had been starting to forget, like sunshine and grass, she loved the fresh green colour. One of her most favourite things was that way water reflected the sunlight, shimmering like jewels but far more precious. That was why sunrise was her favourite time of day. The grass glistened with dew and the sky was like a giant paint pot of colours. She could still remember her mother, watching the sunrise that day with her the day she died. Her mother had the hospital bed moved so she was facing the window. Five-year-old Haruhi snuggled up to her dying mother on the thin sheets and watched the Sun fight its way up to the sky.

Then Haruhi opened her eyes.

There was no sunlight.

There was no grass.

No light reflecting of morning dew.

No mother.

It was the first time she had had a dream that wasn't her usual nightmare but this one was the worst. She had woken up into nothingness.

Haruhi's breath caught and she stumble to go make sure that not everything was gone, she bashed into walls on her way. Where was she? She let out a deep breath when she found the familiar door with the smooth, cool handle and a tiny piece of string that had been tied there to help her find her way.

The door opened almost silently.

'Takashi? Are you there?' she whispered.

She heard footsteps and a hand was gently placed atop her head, 'ah.'

'I thought, I thought everything was gone,' Haruhi frowned, disorientated. Her voice sounded small and shaky.

'Shh,' Takashi soothed and led her to sit down on the bed, this was a common occurrence and he would never push the tiny looking girl away, where she would be alone.

He sat down next to her and pulled her against his bare chest, she relaxed, her breathing slowed slightly. She snuggled up to him like a small child. he could feel her warm breath on his skin and he wrapped a protective arm over her before falling asleep as well.

As his mind dimmed with sleep he made a silent vow that he would be there whenever Haruhi needed him, no matter what, he would guard her.

**Next chapter is the last chapter, I'm kinda sad but if I kept going it would get really drively -.- I also have lots of story ideas that I want to try and complete. **

**Thank-you to all those people still reading 3 **


	24. Chapter 24

Mori rolled over, waking up immediately when is face connected with the empty space on the bed next to him. He sat bolt upright out of reflex and shook his head to wipe away the sleepy fog that was confusing him.

He could see Haruhi, sitting with her back to him, facing out of the floor-to-ceiling window that looked out onto the private gardens.

'G'morning, I'm sorry, did I wake you up with the light? It's a nice day today, sunny,'

'Yeah,' he stood up and stretched, the early morning rays warmed his bare skin, then he stopped, 'sunny,' he repeated.

Haruhi turned, 'I can see,' she stated, grinning and holding up the bandage which had covered her eyes for the past weeks, 'I can see colour, where I'm going and,' she lifted her hand and pointed, 'I can see you.'

Mori picked her up and hugged her. Haruhi laughed.

'I didn't know I missed seeing things so much until I could see them again,' she hugged him back It was strange, being hugged, it reminded of her father. A sad feeling crept into the pit of her stomach but she smiled, remembering his scent, his smile. She was glad she didn't need sight to see him. He was safe in her head, with her mother.

Haruhi leant in close to his shoulder, breathing deeply. She found his scent oddly comforting, though not in the same way it was for her parents. Then she leaned back and they looked each other in the face. She just stared into his eyes, now she could see the flecks of colour in his charcoal grey eyes. There was a hint of blue and the odd fleck of green scatted across them.

All she could do was stare, until Mori kissed her. His lips were impossibly soft for someone so strong. Haruhi's heart fluttered, and then the thought that they were, by adoption, technically brother and sister flitted through her mind.

_You know what? I don't care, I'm happy._

Then there was a soft click, a scream and a thump.

Haruhi opened her eyes, reluctantly separating her lips from Mori's, they shared a confused look then Mori set Haruhi down gently on the floor, they both turned to look in the direction of the door. Huni's head popped around the door.

'Oh, sorry, we'll come back later,' there was the sound of dragging and another voice, Haruhi recognised it as Kaoru.

'Sorry for interrupting,' then there was what sounded like a ticked off grumble probably Hikaru. She grabbed Mori's hand and hurried through the door.

'Wait! It's fine,' Mori wasn't sure if he agreed, 'why is Tamaki unconscious?'

The twins were dragging Tamaki by the leg; Tamaki himself was completely out of it, twitching on the floor.

'Oh you know him, overreacting as usual,' Huni shrugged casually; holding Usa-chan, 'carry on. Kyo-chan is still in bed anyway, we'll come back when he's awake.'

'Yeah,' Mori tugged Haruhi's hand. She blushed and gave him a look.

'I can see,' she told them, not managing to keep the stupid grin off of her face. Huni turned around, obviously only now seeing that the bandage had been removed from her eyes. He squealed and glomped her, she stumbled backwards into Mori's chest.

'That's great,' both twins beamed at her, although Hikaru a few moments later turned to Mori, 'shouldn't you go put on a shirt or something?' Mori ambled off, muttering the word shower. Haruhi stared after him, wondering if he had purposefully left her at the hands of doppelgangers & Co.

At that moment she got a super-glomp from Tamaki.

'Was the big bad Mori hurting you my dear Haruhi?' he squeezed her in his grip, 'do you want me to go beat him up? Huh? Do you?'

'Jeez no he wasn't hurting me, I was actually quite happy until _someone_,' she glared, 'interrupted. Besides, there is no way in hell you could beat up Takashi. He'd definitely kick your ass.'

'Twice over,' Kaoru added.

'I'd say thrice,' Hikaru laughed as Tamaki went to sulk. Haruhi was just too glad she wasn't going to get interrogated anymore.

_Thank god for Tamaki and his tiny attention span..._

'Would you like some tea?' Haruhi asked, as she would have done just a few months ago. There was a chorus of nods, 'ok, you guys go into the dining room. I'm going to get changed then I'll be right back with tea.'

_It's a good thing this household wakes up early, _Haruhi thought to herself as Huni showed the others to the dining room, they may as well have been beating each other up with the amount of noise they were making. Haruhi walked into her room, bed untouched since last night when she woke up. She opened the wooden wardrobe and stared at the clothes with disbelief.

'I've been wearing this stuff for the past three weeks?!' she sifted through the alien clothes, close to breaking down just searching for a pair of trousers, eventually having to settle of a pair of white denim Capri's and a pink sleeveless top with ruffles around the top, 'why so impractical,' she grumbled to herself. She wasn't sure whether she should be glad she couldn't see what Takashi's mother had been dressing her in. Everyone had said she looked cute, but if it was Tamaki's 'cute' Haruhi was terrified.

She sighed, trying to smooth down the ruffles in vain then setting out to make tea. She passed a freshly washed and dressed Mori in the hallway; she gave him her natural grin then disappeared into the kitchen. Mori didn't need telling to go wait for tea with the others. He didn't really understand why she didn't let the maids make it but he knew it tasted better when Haruhi made it and she like to do it so there was no point in complaining.

'So,' Haruhi came in carry a large tray of teacups, silently happy she could carry out her normal menial tasks, 'how are you all this morning. Good morning, Kyouya-senpai,' she nodded to her senior who had made an appearance in the ten minutes she had been gone. Kyouya nodded politely back and took a sip from the tea she handed him.

'We came to see how _you_ were Haru-chan, and because we hope for the best we prepared a surprise for you!' Huni bounded up and down in his seat, like the secret was going to explode out of him.

Haruhi just blinked, trying not to be worried by the inevitable extravagance of their surprise.

'D'you remember that beach we went to with the clients?'

'How could I forget?' Haruhi shot Kyouya a quick glance. He coughed almost unnoticeably and turned so as not to face her slightly. The twins obviously took it for the whole thrown in the water ordeal.

'Yeah, well, that's not gonna happen again,' Kaoru reassured her with a pat on the back.

'Yeah, not after we beat them up,' Hikaru smirked evilly.

Tamaki was getting incredibly impatient, one, that they hadn't got around to the surprise yet (even if it was obvious now), and two, he hadn't made his contribution to the conversation, 'we're going on holiday,' he shrieked excitedly. He and Huni both squirmed for joy in their seats.

Haruhi smiled, a holiday didn't sound bad at all. Actually, a break of any form would have been a blessing.

'Cool, when?'

'Tomorrow,' Mori patted her on the head, happy that she was happy.

'Plus we won't be missing school, national holiday then they're repainting all of the classrooms,' Kyouya settled her only worry. She was still slightly creeped by how smug he seemed, like he had planned the redecorating, well... he probably had.

'So we will give you some privacy and see you tomorrow at nine,' Huni somehow managed to grab the three objecting boys out of the room and let himself out of the house, Kyouya ambled calmly behind.

'Well... Haruhi turned her face up to look at Mori, 'I guess we should get packing.'

~.~.~.~

'Why did I ever think this was a good idea?' Haruhi muttered to herself, hiding behind her book, as if it would block out the sound of Tamaki, Huni, Hikaru and Kaoru singing 'a million green bottles standing on a wall.'

Mori offered her a pair of headphones from his iPod, his own plugged in.*

Haruhi gratefully accepted with a smile, glad of the music to block out the incessant chanting. She rested her head on his arm and closed her eyes which were aching slightly.

'Haru-chan, Takashi! It's time to wake up, we're here,' Huni shook Haruhi gently. She mumbled and frowned, swatting him away grumpily, 'so cute,' he squealed. Tamaki squealed with him.

Takashi blinked awake and put a finger to his lips, they both fell silent. He picked up Haruhi hand carried her gently; she curled up into his tall frame, sighing happily. Takashi would wake her up later, when they were going to the beach.

'We're going to the beach one we've found our rooms,' Tamaki ordered, 'Kyouya! Show me to my room.'

Kyouya sighed, 'it's in the same place as it was last time, Tamaki,' but still he lead his idiotic best friend down one of the hallways.

Mori stood in the hallway with Huni and Haruhi, the twins knew where their room was and he could hear them yelling and what sounded like the throwing of furniture.

'D'you remember where Haru's room is from last time?' Huni looked up at his cousin and hoisted his bag on his shoulders. Mori gave him an affirmative nod, 'okay then, I'll see you in a few minutes,' Huni gave him a big grin and ran down another hallway.

'What's going on,' Haruhi mumbled sleepily into his shoulder.

'Beach,'

'M'kay,' she slid off his shoulder and stumbled half asleep into her room. Takashi heard the thud of her falling onto the bed and the ruffle of the covers and she wriggled into a comfortable position. She'd wake up in the next few minutes, she always was good at waking up, but at least it wasn't to the point of insomnia as it used to be. She wouldn't really need to wake up considering she had never gone to sleep in the first place.

Takashi placed her suitcase just inside the doorway before turning to his own room opposite hers. He heard her call out a slurred thank you before he closed his bedroom door. He waited for a few moments outside her door, heard the expected shuffling as Haruhi dragged herself off of the bed and trudged across the room to her bag and opened it. There was some more shuffling then a sigh, yes, she had found the swimming costume.

'Why?' she said to herself, Takashi moved silently away from the door, laughing inaudibly.

A few minutes later everyone was assembled in the hallway.

'Haruhi why aren't you wearing the bikini,' the twins whined.

'I am, just under this shirt,'

'Whose shirt is it?'

'Takashi's,' she stated giving him a thankful smile.

'Sharing a house and now sharing _clothes_?' the twins continued, 'that is so not fair, it should be us in that position, you're too lucky Mori-senpai.'

'I know,'

***You know you can get the connector things so you can use more than one set of headphones at once?**

**Well, there is going to be one last chapter and I've decided someone is going to make an appearance, probably nothing special but I don't know yet but don't go wishing that Ranka magically comes back from the dead cos he won't, he is dead, fact.**

**Hope you guys are good, there is little chance of a chapter soon, next week I am walking from the moment I finish school to 5pm Sunday. Then I'm going skiing, I'm considering sneaking my laptop along though :) **

**I also have examies but I will try very, very, very hard to update.**


	25. Chapter 25

**A quick apology for switching between 'Mori' and 'Takashi in the last chapter, I didn't even notice I was so sleepy D: It's because the other fanfic I'm writing calls him Takashi all the time so I got confuzzled... this is a short, rounding it off chappie but I may write a sequel in the future because I have another miserable, angsty idea with a bit of evil throw in :)**

Haruhi dug her toes into the sand whilst everyone bar Kyouya was swimming/flailing in the sea. The sum was warm and high in the sky making Haruhi feel slightly drowsy, especially as she hadn't fully woken up yet.

She rubbed her eye on the shirt sleeve and breathed in deeply, it smelt like Mori's home, her home. The softness brushed against her skin and she smiled, comfortable in her surroundings.

'Haruhi!' Haruhi looked up quickly to see a familiar brown haired individual. She blinked in surprise and stood up.

'A-Arai?' what're you doing here?' she cracked a smiled and gave him a friendly hug. Kyouya shook hands with Arai formally.

'I was invited,' he grinned, 'how're you, heard you've had a rough time,' he patted her gently on the head. The other hosts were coming in from the sea.

'Yeah, it's been bad and I miss my dad but I'm happy now,' Haruhi's body felt warm as a hand pressed gently on her back. She was happy the feel that what she had just said was the truth.

'I am sorry about your dad; he was weird but awesome,'

Haruhi laughed, 'yeah, I guess so.'

Mori glared at him, Arai gave him a reassuring look that said 'it's ok I'm just a friend.'

The twins shared an evil grin the slid up to Haruhi, 'hey~ Haru~ are you gonna show Arai your cute little swimming costume?' the tugged at the edges of the oversized shirt while Haruhi tried to squirm away and Arai blushed a nice shade of pink.

'Leave me alone,' Haruhi gave them a look then gave Mori a pleading look, 'Takashi?'

He gave her an apologetic look but, unfortunately, he wanted to see her swimming suit too. Haruhi sighed then ducked, slid between the boys and started to run towards a large rock, she could hear some of the others chasing behind her but didn't stop to see who.

A childish grin played across her face as she slipped the shirt off and discarded it on the sand without stopping, the ties for the pink ruffled bikini top tapped gently against her back as she ran.

She clambered up the large rock and turned her head to see who was following.

Mori was at the front followed by Huni who was laughing and waving his arms, Tamaki and Hikaru were next followed closely by Kaoru. Arai was at the back shirt abandoned and running in his swimming trunks. Kyouya followed at his own leisurely pace.

'Turn around properly so daddy can see Haruhi,' Tamaki yelled, Haruhi laughed back, 'watch out!'

'Huh?' Haruhi turned back just as her foot left the rock, she blinked helplessly and flailed her arms to try and gain balance, then failed, tumbling off the rock into the water below.

_Déjà vu, huh, _Haruhi sighed in her head then felt a hand just brush the back of her arm before wind rushed past her face making her eyes water. She curled up into a ball as she dive bombed into the water, sinking beneath the surface.

Mori stifled a gasp and followed after her, a worried from etched on his forehead. As his face entered the water he couldn't see anything but blue, he panicked a bit, imagining her already lying hidden at the bottom of the ocean.

A pair of small hands covered his eyes, he grasped them gently and turned to look at their owner, Haruhi smiled at him, her shot hair splayed out as a fan in the water, swaying in the current.

Their heads bobbed above the water after floating involuntarily to the surface.

'Haruhi, you're ok!' somebody shouted from above them, not that they listened.

'Baka,' Mori murmured just loud enough for Haruhi to hear.

'Oh come on,' she mock rolled her eyes, 'I can swim, plus, this time I wasn't bashed around the head before I fell. It was actually kinda fun,' Mori shook his head with a faint smile and sighed, holding Haruhi's waist with one hand so she didn't have to use her recently healed leg too much, 'were you worried,' she teased him.

'Yeah,' he said as if it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

'Baka,' she mimicked him then laughed.

Mori looked her face up and down wondering if she would be annoyed if he... with everyone... at this moment... oh well, her lips looked to inviting in their smile so he stole them. Haruhi's laughter cut off and she sighed into his lips, laughing again gently.

'Ew, Get a room!' she ignored Hikaru's voice and instead focused on the slight tangy saltiness that the ocean water had settled on their skin and lips. She pondered fleetingly to herself how she trusted another male after Hokari.

It wasn't like she didn't' already know the answer. Mori was the polar opposite of Hokari. He was safe, calm, quiet, caring and everything Haruhi needed. Not to be mistaken that she was using him, everything about him made her love him as well as need him, he was the glue that kept her together now, after her carefully placed band aids had fall away revealing her cracked and broken self.

Haruhi opened her eyes and reluctantly pulled away, looking Mori in the eyes. She could hear Huni in the background herding away the other hosts plus Arai, giving them a rare moments perfectly alone together.

'Not now...' Mori started hesitantly, Haruhi kept staring intently into his eyes, devouring every word because she knew when he spoke, though he did not speak often, it was meaningful, 'but in the future... would you consider...' he didn't want to scared her, she continued to stared, her expression giving away nothing, 'being my bride?'

Haruhi remained silent, a gentle frown on her brow, 'I'm still young and have a lot of learning to do but one thing I know for sure is, and I didn't think I would ever say this but... I don't think I can, or will ever, be able to live without you.'

Mori was her guardian angel to keep her safe.

**Fin**


End file.
